Having already appeared at two rallies in the state and currently being featured in TV ads, President Barack Obama has now penned a letter to 330,000 "surge voters" in Virginia in an effort to get out the vote for gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds.

"To move this country forward, I need the support and partnership of good governors who are ready to help lay the foundations of change," Obama writes. "And this November 3rd is your opportunity to help Virginia do just that. Creigh Deeds is the governor we need to continue the progress made by Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, and he is the partner I need in Virginia to help put our country back on track."

You can see a copy of the letter here.

And with five days left, you can read more about what's going on in the races for governor of New Jersey and Virginia here.

Last year, the day after Barack Obama won the presidency, Gallup found that 67 percent of Americans agreed that the nation's problems with race relations would eventually be solved. It was a highpoint in optimism. About 10 percentage points above where the measure ever stood before.

But that shift in the American outlook, perhaps unsurprisingly, did not signify change. Rather, like all thresholds crossed on race relations, this Obama optimism was fleeting as well.

Gallup reported this morning that 56 percent of Americans are optimistic on race relations. In December 1963, 55 percent of Americans were optimistic. It's a striking finding. Even the extraordinarily significant civil rights legislation of the 1960s did not permanently alter Americans view of the nation's race problems.

But this stagnancy masks a black and white trend. The portion of whites and Hispanics who say that the U.S. race problem can be solved has not depreciated. Blacks view has.

Blacks have generally been far more pessimistic on race relations than whites, a factor of mostly being on the receiving end of prejudice.

But blacks' pessimism was not always the case. Some 70 percent of blacks were optimistic in the early 1960s, a response to the times. But it's blacks who have today let go of the Obama moment, much as their view declined after the 1960s civil rights era.

Today, whites and Hispanics are generally as optimistic about race as they were last year. But black optimism has fallen to 42 percent; that's where it stood before Obama leaped onto the national stage.

The low point in optimism was 29 percent in October 1995, after O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder. The O.J. incident captured a brief period when whites optimism fell as low as blacks.

A negative moment in race relations appears to sink the public's outlook more than a positive moment, as when Obama was elected.

Still, Americans believe there is less prejudice against blacks. In 1963, 43 percent believed blacks had an equal opportunity to work as whites. Now 79 percent say so. The ceiling on that figure is among blacks as well. Only half of blacks believe they have as good of an opportunity to get a job as whites.

It may seem hard to believe, but there are outfits polling somewhere other than New Jersey, Virginia, and upstate New York.  The University of Cincinnati, a venerable Ohio polling institution, has Governor Ted Strickland (D) up by a point on former Congressman John Kasich (R).  Strickland leads 48%-47%, although the sample may be a bit R-heavy.

In other news, voters seem poised to allow casinos in Ohio!  57% of voters support a measure that would introduce gambling to the Buckeye State.  It remains to be seen whether Toledo will replace Las Vegas and Montreal as the bachelor party destination of choice for the US.

Two more polls in the Virginia gubernatorial race released today show Democratic nominee Creigh Deeds trailing by 13 and 18 points, making it four straight finding the state senator down double digits. The latest releases came from Rasmussen Reports and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Obama addressed Deeds's poor poll results during his speech at a Deeds rally in Norfolk, Va., yesterday, and attempted to boost the spirits of the supporters and get them to the level of enthusiasm they were at this time last year, just before he ended Republican presidential nominees' 44-year winning streak in the state.

"So now we're ... a week from Creigh Deeds' election, and a lot of people are saying, oh, you know, the polls don't look the way we want them to, and I'm not sure it's going to happen, and folks are just kind of staying home," said Obama. "Listen, let me tell you something. I don't believe in 'can't.' ... Go out and get your cousin, who you had to drag to the polls last November, Cousin Pookie. You go out and get him and you tell him, you got to vote again this time."

Pookie may not be enough for Deeds, who now trails by 13.4 points in the RCP Average.

When it comes to health care reform, Republicans in Congress are trusted less than their colleagues across the aisle and President Obama, according to a new Gallup survey (Oct. 16-19, 1521 A).

Just more than one-third (37%) of American adults have a great deal or fair amount of trust in congressional Republicans on reforming the nation's health care system, while nearly half (48%) trust congressional Dems and more than half (55%) trust the president.

Only counting those who said they have a "great deal of trust," 4% said Republicans, 10% said Democrats and 23% said Obama.

Republicans not only lag in trustworthiness among the nation as a whole, but also among members of their own party. Just 61% of Republicans nationwide trust the Republicans in Congress on health care, while 81% of Democrats trust congressional Dems and 86% of Democrats trust Obama.

As for independents, 36% trust Republicans in Congress, 39% trust Democrats and 51% trust Obama.

Tom Friedman weighs in today on decision-time in Afghanistan. He argues for a small footprint. Notably, while others see the American super power at sunset, he stands behind the merit of extending Pax Americana but notes that an extended stay in Afghanistan could undermine it. One thinks of what Afghanistan did to the Soviet Union, a very different war but haunting all the same. Friedman:

A strong, healthy and self-confident America is what holds the world together and on a decent path. A weak America would be a disaster for us and the world. China, Russia and Al Qaeda all love the idea of America doing a long, slow bleed in Afghanistan. I don't.

It has not been a good year for Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), whose numbers take a real hit in the latest Franklin & Marshall College poll (529 RVs, 10/20-25, +/- 4.3 percent).

His favorable rating is just 28 percent, down from 48 percent in March, while his unfavorable rating is now up to 46 percent, nearly double the March rating. Only 23 percent say he should be re-elected, while 66 percent say it's time for a change. Specter's job approval rating is just 29 percent, while 64 percent disapprove. Meanwhile, he continues to slip in both primary and general election matchups.

Primary Election Matchup
Specter 37 (-7 vs. last poll, 8/25-31)
Sestak 18 (+7)
Und 47 (+1)

General Election Matchups
Specter 33 (-4)
Toomey 31 (+2)
Und 30 (+5)

Toomey 28 (+2)
Sestak 20 (-2)
Und 48 (+2)

President Obama's job approval rating has also slipped, from 47 percent in August to 40 percent now; 59 percent disapprove.

Democrats have a 4-point advantage in the generic Congressional ballot, 37-34 percent. After the jump, check out matchups for the gubernatorial race.

Early horserace numbers in the gubernatorial primary are over at Politics Nation.

The soundtrack alone makes this ad deadly effective - not just for Pat Toomey but for Joe Sestak as well:

It's no surprise. Heck, it may even have been part of the White House's plan to galvanize its left wing base. Either way, the decision by Barack Obama and his administration to declare war on FOX News has had the inevitable effect of boosting the already dominant network's ratings even more.

According to numbers from Nielsen Media Research, in the two weeks prior to the launch of the White House's offensive against FOX by Communications Director Anita Dunn on October 11,  FOX was averaging 1.2 million viewers per day and 323,000 viewers in the coveted Adult 25-54 demographic.

In the two weeks since Dunn's remarks (and the subsequent comments by Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, and President Obama himself) FOX's total average daily viewership surged 9% to over 1.3 million, while its viewership among Adults 25-54 shot up 14%.

Also not surprisingly, FOX continued its ratings dominance in October. The top 13 rated shows represent FOX's entire lineup except the 3am show Red Eye, which is still pulling in more viewers than MSNBC's premier morning show, Morning Joe. Meanwhile, CNN and MSNBC recorded their lowest ratings of the year through the first three weeks of this month.

In particular, CNN is in the midst of what looks to be a total ratings collapse. CNN's average daily viewership among all households through the first twenty one days of October was just over half of what it was in January. The former cable heavyweight now ranks dead last among cable news networks - behind even its sister network Headline News.

“You could see it coming," Quinnipiac's Maurice Carroll says of the polling outfit's new survey on the New Jersey gubernatorial race today. Incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine has taken a 5-point lead with one week to go, after trailing Republican challenger Christie in previous surveys all year.

General Election Matchup
Corzine (D)  43 (+3 from last poll, 10/7-12)
Christie (R)  38 (-3)
Daggett (I) 13 (-1)
Undecided 5 (unch)

Corzine now leads the RCP Average of New Jersey by 0.6 percent.

Though the governor has been narrowing the gap for some time, the pollster warns it's still a fluid race. Independent candidate Chris Daggett has "changed it from ‘ABC' – Anybody But Corzine – to a real three-way scrap," and "a lot of Daggett's voters say they might change their minds by Election Day," Carroll says.

Among those Daggett supporters, 38 percent say they could change their mind, compared to 19 percent of Corzine backers and 12 percent of Christie's. Daggett's supporters lean Christie on the second-choice question, 43-27 percent, while 18 percent say they wouldn't vote at all.

Christie now has a 15-point lead among independent voters, up from a 9-point lead earlier this month. But he has slipped somewhat among Republicans while Corzine has secured his standing among Democrats, perhaps attributable to visits last week by Vice President Biden, former President Clinton and President Obama.

Favorable Ratings
Christie 37 / 42
Corzine 41 / 52
Daggett 21 / 16

Corzine's job approval rating is 39 percent, while 54 percent disapprove. Meanwhile, more voters say Corzine is honest and trustworthy than Christie, with Christie's numbers on that question dropping 5 points in two weeks.

The survey of 1,267 likely voters was conducted October 20-26, with a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percent.