Inspired by Markos's straw polls (at Daily Kos), I started noodling around looking at some things related to the 2008 election.  And lo and behold I noticed this disturbing fact regarding the schedule for the parties' conventions:

The 2008 Democratic National Convention will be the 2008 United States presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party. It will be held from Monday, August 25, through Thursday, August 28, 2008, after the Summer Olympics in Beijing. (The 2008 Republican National Convention will start just 4 days later, on September 1, 2008).

WTF?  The Republican convention will start just four days after the Democratic convention?  That will give the Democratic candidate almost no time to enjoy a "bounce" or a "honeymoon" or anything else.  Any message developed by the candidates at the convention will be immediately swamped by the Republicans, just four days later.