The difference between what people say and what people do is not as small a gap as we would like it to be. The ease with which one may pronounce this ideal or laud that platitude or discuss plaintively about we know to be true, in our existential self, often varies widely from our actions regarding our so-called "ideals", "platitudes" and "existential selves." Truth has been a fungible commodity for much of the last fifty years, so it does not surprise me that when asked for our true feelings or opinions, many people respond, not with their true feelings, but with what they assume the questioner wants or expects them to say.

Most people can understand this concept. A number of people, in pursuit of companionship, (read a hook up) will say any number of things they do not really feel, recognizing that there is a verifiable benefit to them. Does it alter what they believe? Only for tonight, baby. Only for tonight. If you know of what I speak, either by personal experience or through observation or anecdote, then you can grasp what it means to feel social pressure.

At the heart of all people is an unflinching yearning for acceptance. Sum it up like this.

I want you to want me.
I need you to need me.
Id love you to love me.
Im beggin you to beg me.

Social pressure is that feeling you have when you aren't comfortable saying what you feel. My contention is that in our climate, as politically charged as it is, the worries of social pressures influence public opinion. So today's news from NPR doesn't worry me.

Three weeks before the November election, likely voters continue to be pessimistic about the direction the country is heading and they disapprove of President Bush's performance, according to a new NPR poll. Against that backdrop, Democrats hold a growing margin in the battle for control of the U.S. House, the poll shows.

The poll, conducted last week, is certainly good news for Democrats and their supporters. But allow me to get lyrical again and suggest that we need a little less talk, and a lot more action.

Voters go to the polls three weeks today. Absentee ballots have already gone out. But citizens have been voting all year long. Not at community centers and schools. They have been voting with their wallets and giving support to candidates left and right. Well, mostly right according to the Washington Post.

Despite a rush of campaign donations to Democrats earlier this year, Republican incumbents in highly competitive races in the House have a substantial cash advantage going into the final weeks before the midterm elections.

Democrats spent more heavily over the summer and early autumn than their Republican rivals in pivotal House districts, leaving themselves at a disadvantage of more than 2 to 1 in money on hand, according to a Washington Post analysis of the latest campaign disclosures.

The advantages are obvious. Republicans can spend more money getting both the word and the vote out. Even with a catalog of mistakes and miscues that have diminished them, Republicans possess the fundamentals necessary to retain majorities in both the House and the Senate. Those majorities might shrink, but it would take an October surprise of cosmic proportions to overcome the cash advantage that the Republicans have. And unlike the Democrats in '04, the Republicans are not going to hold any of that money in reserve to fund legal battles that may never need to be waged.

My estimate is that the news from Missouri, reported in the Hotline, via Sixers at NRO, is just the beginning of funding woes that will develop for Democrats. I believe that fundraising begins with an idea. Whatever the idea is, there is a limit to the amount of support a person can garner. There is no limit to the support an idea can get. Democrats remain the party of gridlock. Rather than push an agenda, they push against President Bush. They sing the chorus against everything he does. That vitriol animates their base, but it fails to resonate with regular folks. The eighty percent of Americans who couldn't care less about the ramifications of Lynne Stewart light sentence and who will not lose a bit of sleep of the civil rights that could be trampled by the Patriot Act. We wonder who these folks are, because they don't know who Karl Rove is. And with a chuckle, I might add, they probably wonder about us because we do know who Karl Rove is.

But these folks, some of them at any rate, show up on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November and participate in the civic process. And at that juncture they are going to examine what effects them most. How much they paid at the pump this week. What their 401(k) looks like this quarter. How their kids are doing at school. And if all of that is okay, they are not going to significantly change how they voted from last go around. And for Republicans, that is their greatest saving grace.

As Glenn Reynolds has said, the Republicans have not won this race. Not at all. In fact, they earned a loss. The Democrats have not earned the win. In politics, tie goes to the incumbent.