Al Gore

With polls opening in less than 16 hours, PolitickerMA.com asked the local punditry to handicap the state's top of the ballot races. Here's a breakdown of what they said.

Presidential:

Nothing shocking here, as PolitickerMA.com couldn't find a single pundit or strategist that believes Republican nominee John McCain is going to beat Democratic nominee Barack Obama in the Bay State, which hasn't backed a Republican presidential candidate since 1984. Some analysts did differ, however, on what Obama's victory margin will be.

Charles Stewart, a political scientist at MIT, crunched the numbers Monday morning and said he believed Obama would carry the state by about the margin that U.S. Sen. John Kerry won it in 2004 - 25 percent. "That's about where the average of the polls has been," Stewart said, "though it might be a little higher because these polls are kind of stale."

Stewart noted that Obama is up about 8 to 10 percentage points across the country compared to where Kerry was at this point in 2004. The problem for Obama, Stewart said, is that there isn't much room to expand the margin in Massachusetts since Democrats pretty much maxed out for Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore, who hit the 60 percent mark when he won by 27 percentage points in 2000.

"There is nowhere for Obama to go in Massachusetts compared to Kerry," Stewart said.

A new poll released Thursday shows Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama holding a significant 16 point lead of GOP nominee John McCain.

The SurveyUSA/WBZ-TV poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday, found that 55 percent of 679 likely voters in the Bay State are supporting the Illinois Democrat while 39 percent are backing the Arizona Republican. Three percent chose to support an alternative candidate and two percent are undecided.

Geographically, the poll found that Obama leads by 20 points in the Boston areas, 15 points in the western and central parts of the state. He also betters McCain among men and women, younger and older voters and richer and poorer voters.

The fourth and final day of the Democratic National Convention will be called to order at 5:00 PM EST on Thursday, with a theme of "Change You Can Believe In."

The final day's events will take place at INVESCO Field at Mile High, where over 70,000 people are expected to attend.

Featured speakers will include Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D), former Vermont Gov. and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean (D), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), U.S. Rep. and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D), former Vice President Al Gore (D) and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D).

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the Democratic presidential nominee, is scheduled to address the convention at 10 p.m. EST.

The full schedule is below.

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Hyannis Port)As the Democratic National Committee Convention prepares to pay tribute to U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a new Rasmussen Reports poll finds him to be one of the most popular members of his party with the entire American public.

Excluding U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), the national poll shows that Massachusetts' senior senator has the third best approval rating of the top Democrats in the country, with 50 percent rating him favorable and 45 percent unfavorable.

Former President Jimmy Carter (D-Ga.) is the most popular Democrat in the nation. 61 percent give him a favorable rating while 36 percent give him an unfavorable rating. Former Vice President Al Gore finishes second, 52 percent favorable to 45 percent unfavorable.

If you turn on your television set and to hear Al Gore's voice, creeping piano and flashing images of the environmental crisis, you're either watching one of two things: his Academy Award winning documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' or the newest re-election commercial in U.S. Sen. John Kerry's re-election campaign.

In an ad unveiled today, former Vice President Al Gore makes a rare down-ticket appearance for his longtime friend and onetime Senate colleague by calling Kerry (D-Boston) "a champion of the environment."

"He's a friend of mine," the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee says of his 2004 predecessor. "And in the race to stop global warming, he's a friend of our planet, too."

As some of you may know, Boston Magazine's young Massachusetts politics guru Paul McMorrow is also a contributor to Beer Advocate magazine. Which is why he should sit down before he reads former Al Gore speechwriter Jeff Nussbaum's op-ed in the the New York Daily News combining the flavors of politics and beer.

Unique Hindsight In Meet the Press DebateSenators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Kerry (D) debate negative campaigning on Meet the Press: NBC

U.S. Senators John Kerry (D-Boston) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) had a spirited discussion of both issues and politics earlier today on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' Though both are in the same Senate caucus today, they've taken different sides in this campaign, with Lieberman an early supporter of Republican nominee John McCain and Kerry backing Democratic nominee Barack Obama since January.

And with both men having the unique experience of running on a national ticket -- Lieberman as the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee and Kerry as the 2004 presidential nominee -- they each offered their thoughts on the sharp negative turn the race has taken in the last week.

Dredging up John McCain's pledge in April that, "This will be a respectful campaign," moderator Tom Brokaw pressed Lieberman, "Do you think running a campaign ad in which you feature Britney Spears and Paris Hilton with Barack Obama is respectful?"

Former Gov. Michael Dukakis was spotted in Philadelphia at the National Governor's Association conference Saturday, which was twenty years ago to the day when he announced his vice presidential nominee, Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen.

Bentsen was chosen over Ohio Sen. John Glenn and -- oddly enough -- several others whose names have been bandied about in the 2008 cycle: Sam Nunn, Dick Gephardt, Bob Graham and Al Gore.

In another strange comparison to today, Bentsen was said to be influential in squashing the public feuding between Dukakis and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has again found himself in the back-and-forth of presidential politics although in a much, much weaker position. At the time, Jackson still thought of himself as a real contender for 1992 if Dukakis were to fail.

The pick came only a few days before the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Barack Obama will likely hold his announcement to a few days before his own convention.