A bit of MLP here, but interesting. In Sunday's NYT is an article on Joel Benenson and his work for Obama.
"I’ve worked for Barack for 12 months, and in 12 months, he’s asked me twice about poll numbers," said Mr. Benenson [...] "I’ve never worked for a candidate who asked less about polls."
Of course, he's obviously a partisan, but if it were true - doesn't this lend credence to the idea that Obama is running his "real" message and platform? I'm always wary of candidates switching their message, changing their minds, etc - but I always felt that with Obama, what you see is what you get. That he's speaking from principle, so you can know where he stands.