I see the latest polling on the 2008 U.S. Senate race gives incumbent Susan Collins a 25 point lead over Tom Allen.

(Paste the following URL in your browser for full poll results. The PHPost utility is refusing to let me hyperlink this story)

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=1&8481&ac=PHnws

I'm not sure whether we can draw any conclusions from that result, given that a similar poll conducted in the same time period only gave Collins a nine point lead. It seems to me that results like these make the polling itself suspect.

For those who haven't been following the race closely, the Democrats' strategy has been to criticize Susan Collins for her lack of "bipartisanship" - whatever that means. Ironically, only the most partisan Democratic Activist could possibly view the situation in that light. Susan Collins breaks GOP political ranks more often than just about any Republican in Washington, especially on key platform issues like abortion rights or domestic oil e%ploration. As a matter of fact, there's a lot of hostility toward Ms. Collins from members of her own party, who widely regard her as that most abhorrent of creatures - a RINO (Republican In Name Only).

There's no doubt that Susan Collins is solidly middle-of-the-road. Truth be told, a lot of moderate Democrats are going to vote for her over the spendthrift Tom Allen, even if they won't own up to it around the water cooler. At the same time, conservative Republicans will hold their noses and pull the lever for Collins. As a result, she's going to win another Senate term with relative ease, IMO. In the meantime, the Democratic Party will have wasted millions of dollars in Maine that could have been spent more effectively elsewhere.

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