In the polls

New polling data indicate that John Edwards hasn't swung North Carolina into the Kerry column -- not especially surprising given Southern Democrats' recent track record of taking their home states (see Gore, Al). In a Gallup poll taken days after the veep announcement, 53 percent of likely voters said they would vote for Bush-Cheney in November. Kerry's ticket only got support from 39 percent. The latest Mason-Dixon poll shows the race to be much tighter, with 48 percent of respondents saying they would vote for Bush and 45 for Kerry. But take Mason-Dixon's results with a grain of salt; they're not as up-front about their methodology as Gallup.