If it is hurting him, how come those polls are up for him.
Forget those "polls" they're designed to fire up voters. Both campaigns want the election to appear real close so they can continue to arouse the electorate.
Just think of the joy we'll share on Nov 3, that's the goal.
All polls except possibly the Gallup poll are run by democrats. They will continue to rise despite what the actual poll should be. Until right before the election when they will post the correct info so that they can say they called the election correctly.
There's a lag time before the voters begin to absorb the information.
There is also the fact that there are people who will vote for Kerry regardless of whether or not he's a lying, opportunistic bastard.
I estimated the other day, and it was confirmed by another poll, that about 2/3s of Kerry's current support will probably vote for him anyway, just because he isn't Bush, conservative, or a Republican. The other third will change votes if they believe that Bush would be the lesser of two evils.
So the battle to characterize Kerry as a dangerous man to put in the White House is underway, and he's hurting because he hasn't been able to respond to the Swift Boat ads with facts. All he's been able to do is orchestrate a media blitz to discredit them, but they are quite resilient, and they are going to hammer away at him as long as their funds last.