While Sen. Russ Feingold's campaign has been touting a recent $435,000 "cheddar bomb," recent polling on the race suggests that the Democrats' enthusiasm gap is seriously damaging his chances of being re-elected. The TPM poll average has him down by about seven points. Eric Kleefeld reports:
With that said, Holbrook also made it clear that Feingold could potentially win. Holbrook explained that as of now, the race still has not heated up -- and people still don't really know Johnson: "Right now people don't know much about him, other than he's the guy running against Feingold." As such, Feingold and his supporters have the task of defining Johnson negatively in the voters' minds.
"It's not clear to me that Feingold does negative very well," said Holbrook. "It's sort of out of step with his overall approach to politics. I remember over the summer seeing an ad, and I don't even remember what the substance was other than it was negative, and I just remember thinking it didn't fit well with Feingold himself."
As frustrated as liberals might be with their own party, it would really surprise me if, of all the Democrats in Congress, they would decide Feingold isn't worth saving.
UPDATE: Steve Singiser at Dailykos quotes Tom Jensen from Public Policy Polling, which just released a poll showing Johnson up on Feingold 52-41:
Wisconsin is seeing one of the most severe enthusiasm gaps in the country. If turnout matched 2008 Johnson would be leading Feingold only 47-46 and Barrett would be ahead of Walker 46-44. Right now these races look very difficult but if Democrats wake up between now and November they have the potential to become toss ups.
