And now, a few words from the JournoList to Republican voters:

To place the weekend’s polls into perspective, Matt Drudge offers some historic flashbacks:

As William A. Jacobson writes at his Legal Insurrection blog, “Operation Demoralize is Working Just as Planned”:

It’s November 7. Barack Obama has won. The Republican presidential strategy has failed. The media is jubilant. The right-blogosphere is going through a serious introspection. The left-blogosphere is dancing on our graves and shoving it down our throats. Four years of fighting the Obama agenda was for nothing. Oh, I’m sorry. Let me correct that. It’s September 9, not November 7. The rest of the paragraph above can remain as originally written.

Oh, and as a reminder that snap poll numbers immediately after a convention can be rather deceiving, particularly when there’s nearly two months of a campaign — and the debates — and shifting world events — left to go, here’s USA Today on September 8th of 2008:

WASHINGTON — The Republican National Convention has given John McCain and his party a significant boost, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken over the weekend shows, as running mate Sarah Palin helps close an “enthusiasm gap” that has dogged the GOP all year. McCain leads Democrat Barack Obama by 50%-46% among registered voters, the Republican’s biggest advantage since January and a turnaround from the USA TODAY poll taken just before the convention opened in St. Paul. Then, he lagged by 7 percentage points.

So if you’re feeling nervy, irritable, depressed and/or tired of life by the polls this weekend, well, that’s just how the MSM wants you to feel right now.

Update: “Campaign Kickoff; Has Reagan Dropped the Ball?” — U.S. News and World Report, 9/9/1980.

Related: Sarah Hoyt at the Tatler on the MSM “Spreading Fear and Despondency.”

Update: Welcome readers clicking in from Instapundit, Rand Simberg, Free Republic, and the PJM homepage.