Bump!

The Time poll has Bush over Kerry 52 to 41, an 11 point lead not even the most generous pundits would have predicted. Here are the Time poll details:

New York: For the first time since the Presidential race became a two person contest last spring, there is a clear leader, the latest TIME poll shows. If the 2004 election for President were held today, 52% of likely voters surveyed would vote for President George W. Bush, 41% would vote for Democratic nominee John Kerry, and 3% would vote for Ralph Nader, according to a new TIME poll conducted from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2. Poll results are available on TIME.com and will appear in the upcoming issue of TIME magazine, on newsstands Monday, Sept. 6.

Carl Rove must be grinning this morning knowing he set the bar perfectly for the convention. The Bush/Cheney team had even the most liberal pundits spinning that this was going to be a no bump confab. But what else could they say? They knew if they said otherwise it would just highlite the fact the Dems saw no bounce (and even a negative bounce in some polls) at their own convention.

Maybe the crew over at Time gave Kerry/Edwards a heads up on their polling data, and that's what had John-boy melting down at his midnight rally.