Heating Up for Martin

There 's no question: Jim Martin can become Georgia's next senator. Polling data to date reflects a tight, unpredictable race, and the outcome entirely depends on turnout. Internal polling to be released tomorrow will show an even tighter, two point, race-a statistical dead heat with neither candidate breaking 50%.

On the ground, there is significant enthusiasm about the race among democrats. For example, last week, Lauren Benedict called me as she left her office to say that there were eight people there to phone bank for Martin. And, Martin and Powell were both here in Macon for a rally on Saturday afternoon-at a time when I thought it would be really difficult to build a crowd given Mercer's homecoming-and, yet, City Hall was packed with a diverse, local, enthusiastic crowd.

The impact of the Obama field organization will also important. At the rally on Saturday, staff were there from the beginning making sure that all who came to the rally signed up for shifts for canvassing and phone banks. It is my sense that the Martin organization is far better than Chambliss', and that alone may make the difference on Dec. 2nd.

Having backed a number of outstanding candidates who went on to lose their races, I am now, officially, a political realist. But, the reality here is that Martin really can win this thing if we go vote and make sure that everyone we know who voted for Martin in the general gets back to the polls by Tuesday. That's the bottom line.