Michael Barone, America's preeminent political analyst, was an old media guy who adapted quickly and has become a key participant in new media.  His column on the polls this morning is a must read. "What's with the polls?" Barone asks, and then answers.

Short version:  There's plenty of reasons why the GOP should not be deterred by the numbers of many polls, and plenty of reasons why Dems have to fear another bit of secret  sauce and echo-chamber-induced premature celebrations.

Mark Halperin is ABC News' political director, who has brought an ancient elite media perspective to a very dynamic new media fixture, "The Note."  As I wrote last week, "The Note" is a sort of daily supply train to the D.C.-Beltway MSM that doesn't want to work the web for themselves and prefer to rely for most of their e-news and analysis on Halperin's brigade. Virtual blinders work the same way as the real ones.

Halperin has written, along with the Washington Post's John Harris, The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008. 

Halperin is my guest for the entire show today, as election countdown begins with an in-depth look at why you simply cannot trust MSM when it comes to political coverage, from the polls to its silliest headlines or most partisan plays.  If you can't listen at 3 PM pacific, the transcript will be here and the audio here at 6 PM pacific.