Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Public expects Obama to win

Above is pollster.com aggregate without Rasmussen and Gallup. See explanation.

Above is Rasmussen and Gallup alone. "All polls included" is here.

New rule: You can't ask Mitt Romney about abortion or Todd Akin because he'll look dumb  http://t.co/...
' @SusanGDailyKos via Tweet Button
Todd Akin's thinking, "Hey! I can tell reporters to not ask me about Todd Akin. Awesome."
' @LOLGOP via TweetDeck

Ta-Nehisi Coates:

As a candidate, Barack Obama said we needed to reckon with race and with America's original sin, slavery. But as our first black president, he has avoided mention of race almost entirely. In having to be 'twice as good' and 'half as black,' Obama reveals the false promise and double standard of integration.

In Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin, more likely voters trust Obama to handle Medicare (@coopnytimes and Dalia Sussman) http://t.co/...
' @OpinionToday via web
Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism:

On the eve of the nominating conventions, the discussion of President Obama in major mainstream news outlets is dominated by two narratives assessing his economic record-that his policies have failed to help the economy and that things would be much worse without his actions. Together these two narratives make up half of all the statements about Obama's record and character-and the negative side of the argument outweighs the positive in the coverage by more than two to one.

The next biggest personal narrative about Obama in the mainstream news media is one that raises doubts about whether the president really believes in American capitalism and ideas of individualism.

On the Republican side, the No. 1 personal narrative about Romney is that his experience in private equity suggests he is a "vulture" capitalist who doesn't care about workers, followed closely by the idea that he is an elitist out of touch with average Americans. The third-biggest personal narrative in the media about Romney is that he is a gaffe-prone, awkward campaigner.

But don't worry; the Bain ads aren't working. Republicans told me so.

Trust to do a better job handling social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage: Obama 54% / Romney 33% (AP-GfK) http://t.co/...
' @pollreport via web

Kos:

So do this week's numbers tell us? That the only place the Romney ticket got a legitimate Ryan bounce was in his home state of Wisconsin. Other than that, there's little here to be worried about, and plenty to be excited about.

John Sides:

The chapter ends with the requisite note of caution: the fundamentals do not tilt strongly enough toward Obama to make the outcome a foregone conclusion.  But if we start with those fundamentals and, most importantly, get them right, we can go some distance in explaining why Obama's lead persists and why it's still his election to lose.

Trust to do a better job of creating jobs: Obama 45% / Romney 44% (AP-GfK Poll, 8/16-20)  http://t.co/...
' @pollreport via web
Even though the AP-GfK poll has Obama by a point, when asked, the public figures Obama to win 58-32, up from 49-48 from December 2011. The CNN poll from Aug 8 had the public thinking Obama would win 63-33.