Dean Doubles Kerry In New Poll

And now the most telling two minutes in television, the latest from the political grapevine:

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Dean Doubles Kerry In New Poll

A new poll out today shows democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean (search) is not only leading the democratic presidential race in the key state of New Hampshire, but his lead more than doubles the support of the runner up, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry (search). According to the Zogby International poll (search), 38 percent of New Hampshire Democrats say they would vote for Dean, while 17 percent say they would vote for Kerry. Two months ago Kerry was leading Dean by a 25-to-22 percent margin. Today's poll has a relatively high margin of error at 4.5 percent, and nearly a quarter of those polled said they were not sure whom to support.

Bogus Betrayal?

In a front-page story Tuesday on the President and his compassionate conservative agenda, the New York Times said that, "some religious supporters of Mr. Bush say they feel betrayed by promises he made as a candidate and now, they maintain, he has broken as president." The story relies heavily on quotes from one Reverend Jim Wallis, whom the Times describes as an, "early supporter" of the President. Wallis tells the Times Mr. Bush has, "failed the test." He is the only person in the whole story identified as a Bush supporter. But Wallis is, in fact, an ardent Democrat, who did not vote for Mr. Bush, and who edits a liberal religious magazine called Sojourners, which has consistently criticized the President and his administration. None of this is mentioned in the Times story.

The Deficit Forecast

You'll have a hard time finding it in the coverage of that Congressional Budget Office (search) report yesterday predicting an all-time record $480 billion federal deficit next year but, the report also says this: that deficits will not only begin to decline after a spike next year, but will be cut in half by the end of 2006. And, the CBO forecasts, the deficit will keep on declining through 2011, with surpluses expected after that.

Taco Bell Beef

California democrats are now fuming over that obviously unscientific poll by Taco Bell in California that counts each chicken soft taco sold as a vote against Governor Gray Davis' (search) recall and each crunchy beef taco sold as a vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger (search). Democrats say the poll…whose latest stats show only 3 percent of Californians oppose the recall…is rigged since the chicken tacos cost much more than the beef. And Democratic Party adviser Bob Mulholland says the whole thing is a scheme to enrich Schwarzenegger because he owns stock in PepsiCo. PepsiCo, however, sold its interest in Taco Bell six years ago.

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report