The latest Iowa poll shows Sen. Barack Obama up by 12 points over McCain.

Key findings:

• Independents prefer Obama to McCain, 49 percent to 36 percent.
• Voters under 35 prefer Obama by two to one.
• Obama leads among women, 53 percent to 39 percent for McCain.
• Republicans are more satisfied with McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, than Democrats are with Joe Biden, Obama’s vice presidential pick.
• President Bush’s approval rating with Iowans is at an abysmal 25 percent, with 71 percent disapproving.
• Senator Chuck Grassley remains popular with Iowans, at 69 percent approval.

I take this as a sign Obama is resonating with rural voters. Hopefully, we'll see similar results in Ohio and other battleground states with high rural populations.

Colorado Senator Ken Salazar this week laid out Obama's appeal to rural voters:

Obama has supported farm bills aimed at revitalizing rural America, Salazar said, while McCain has opposed all of them the last 15 years.

Obama has championed renewable energy, including biofuels that can be a way for America to help grow its way to energy independence, and McCain has not, Salazar said. The Bush administration has largely ignored rural America, home to 50 million people, the last eight years, Salazar said. What he calls "the forgotten America" includes 44 of Colorado's 65 counties. Those areas have lost jobs, health care facilities and schools, Salazar said.

What is McCain's message to rural voters? More politics of distortion. Today, at Gov. Palin's campaign rally, McCain's Colorado press spokesman Tom Kise falsely told local CBS news (video here) that Obama is against people owning guns.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin campaigned in Colorado today. She addressed the Wall St. crisis:

This is an issue of real concern," Palin told thousands gathered in a rodeo ring in Golden, Colorado. But, she said, "I'm glad to see the Federal Reserve has said no to using taxpayer money for a bailout."

.... Palin accused Wall Street regulators of being "asleep at the switch" and vowed that she and McCain would "put an end to the mismanagement and abuses." "We're going to reform the way Wall Street does business and stop the golden parachutes for CEOs who betray the public trust," she said.

One line from her gubernatorial speeches she is unlikely to repeat:

Palin herself may not be the most authoritative spokesperson on such issues. In the past, when she was running for Alaska governor, she freely admitted to a reporter that she got a "D" in macroeconomics in college.

ABC notes: [More...]

It may take the Left blogs a few days to catch up, but Obama has his game changer - the economy. No more Palinpalooza. Carville rules again - "it's the economy, stupid."

The tracking polls show small movement towards Obama - DKos/R2000 (8/12-14) has Obama by 3, 48-45. Ras has a tick in Obama's favor with McCain's lead trimmed to 2, 49-47. Hotline says Obama by 2, 45-43. And Gallup says McCain by 2, 47-45.

After today, expect an Obama poll resurgence as he sledgehammers on the economy and McCain's fealty to the policies of George W. Bush. And if he rolls out a Big Dog tour, expect a huge bounce for Obama.

This is a game changer. This campaign is back to real issues, starting today.

By Big Tent Democrat, speakng for me only

John McCain has demonstrated that when it comes to politics and governance, he is a clone of George W. Bush. A know nothing blusterer whose political resurgence has been on the back of the Bush/Rove politics of the personal attack and the trivial ("Lipstick on a pig" anyone?). When it comes to actual policies, particularly on the economy, McCain himself has said he is is a know nothing:

Which explains why McCain said "I don’t believe we’re headed into a recession, I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong and I believe they will remain strong.”

It is now time for the Obama campaign to demonstrate the Democratic record of competence and concern regarding the economy. Yes, it is time to roll out the Big Dog. On the campaign trail. With Obama. Now. Right now. Politics matters. Governance matters. Democrats can govern. Democrats can help the American People through these economic woes. Bush-McCain Republicans clearly can not. Now is the time to talk about that.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Via Attaturk, John McCain would deal with Social Security and the economy like George Bush would:

As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it—along the lines that President Bush proposed,” McCain told the Journal.[Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08; Campaign Website, accessed 3/3/08]

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

I just returned from Tampa/Clearwater/St Petersburg. What a welcome surprise this morning to pick up the St. Petersburg Times and see the editorial, Campaign of Lies Disgraces McCain . It details the blatant falsehoods in his ads about Barack Obama and sex education and Obama and the lipstick on the pig statement, and concludes:

[McCain] has been a serious public servant willing to say unpopular truths when he thought it best for the country, but he's more than willing in this election to put his name on campaign lies. The leader who says he would rather lose an election than lose a war now risks losing his reputation in an attempt to win the White House.

When even Karl Rove says McCain's ads went too far in the truth department, you know it's going to backfire.

Les Gara, a state representative from Anchorage, explains the background of the Troopergate investigation that the McCain campaign "is now trying to spin like an amusement-park tilt-a-whirl."

This summer, this started out as a Republican investigation. Former Republican legislator and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Halcro came out with a story that the press, then, reported on, that the governor had inappropriately fired -- or worked to try to fire a state trooper. ... And the first calls to move ahead with an investigation were from Republican Party members. ... Today’s spin by the McCain camp that this is somehow some sort of democratic effort is just nothing but -- but a falsehood.

In the same conference call, Borough Assembly member Michelle Church from Wasila (who was working as a community organizer when she first met Gov. Palin) discusses "Palin’s decision to accept state travel per diems for 312 days ... that she has actually spent at home." She says "Governor Palin got paid to sleep at home." Nice work if you can get it.

The Service Employees International Union ad will air in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Fortunately, The New York Times is doing the vetting of Sarah Palin that John McCain didn't bother to do. The conclusion:

Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials. ...

Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records.

Once she became governor, Palin hired at least five high school classmates for government positions. She installed one of them as the director of Alaska's Agriculture Department. The former classmate cited a "childhood love of cows" as a job qualification. [more ...]

Ras (9/11-13) has McCain up 50-47 (yesterday it was 49-46.) I'll be adding the other results as they become available this morning and afternoon. I will add an overall take when all results are in. So far, no change - a slight McCain lead.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Al Giordano discussing an Obama Tier 2 ad (which means it is NOT from Obama):

Obsession with Palin has more often than not, in the past 14 days, said more about the misogynist and sexist culture we live in than about Governor Palin. It doesn't matter if, on the merits, the critique is right or wrong: it's the kind of Palin-hate that drowns out the more necessary fair-game critiques of her, and inoculates her from them. In a way, the obsessions over Palin from parts of the left mirror the act of aerial hunting being described in the ad. (And it's a very eerie coincidence that the McCain campaign's own pre-existing Internet ad that purports to be against "sexism" also uses the image of invading wolves, albeit making the opposite point.)

I wonder if that post makes Giordano a "concern troll?"

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only