While on our early morning walk through the woods the other day, one of my pals mentioned how the latest political polls seem to be tending toward the Democrats.

If true, it opposes the historic trend favoring candidates who oppose the party holding the White House.

It is no surprise that public sentiment is in flux, given all the hoopla over Mar-a-Lago, the FBI, Jan. 6, and the Ukraine war, reaction to the Dobbs court decision, and climate change, not to mention the soaring price of broccoli.

Political scientists say the political public opinion polls are statistical snapshots of what responders believe at a particular time. The polls do not predict the future.

We would love to know what the future holds. The storybooks tell us tales of leaders asking soothsayers to reveal the future. The Bible warns us to avoid fortune tellers and necromancers. Do you remember the tales of King Arthur consulting Merlin, the magician, or Aladdin and his magic lamp?

If you have a free afternoon and want to know more about the history of fortune tellers, visit the library.

Some of our friends hang on to every word from pundits on Fox or MSNBC as they faithfully follow the current political turmoil. Sometimes, their reaction to the latest news story sends them into a tizzy.

Once upon a time, our political campaigns involved face-to-face speeches about taxes, trade policy, morality, economics, and promises of prosperity.

That was yesterday's campaign playbook. Today's politics seem to feature leaders trading insults. In some cases, their comments trickle down to our family and friends.

Today, instead of sitting down over a beer and engaging in dialogue with friends, we don't talk politics. If we do, there is no back and forth.

If one person asks a question about Mar-a-Lago, the next guy pivots to Hillary Clinton's computer or the migrant crisis on the southern border and vice versa.

In some cases,we avoid talking to old friends. In other cases, what passes for political chatter involves creating sophomoric and snarky posts slamming the other side.

No one, especially members of Congress, seems inclined to seek a middle ground or a compromise.

Ironically, we live in a state created 200 years ago by the Missouri Compromise, a law passed as politicians tried to tamp down the fierce political arguments over slavery. That compromise calved Maine from Massachusetts but failed to settle the fundamental argument over slavery which led to civil war, and, God forbid, this ever happens again.

As we celebrate Labor Day, the usual start of the fall political season, we see a preview of the first salvo in what portends to become a nasty TV ad war over our race for governor.

So far, the nastiest ads are funded by folks from away carrying disclaimers identifying their principal funding coming from either the Democratic Governors Association or the Republican Governors Association.The from away-funded TV ads ignore our state’s problems.

For instance, they don’t mention the possible effect that off-shore electric power generation will have on our fishing industry. They don't mention the need to create a public defender system for our courts. They fail to mention the need to fund local emergency ambulance services, replace rusting bridges, or combat rising sea levels that threaten our coastal communities.

Instead, the nasty ads accuse the incumbent of promoting a transgender lifestyle while slamming the challenger for harming senior citizens and defunding meals on wheels.

It is all attack, attack, attack the other guy/gal. They also picture the candidates using the most unflattering black and white photos they could find.

I fear the next two months will turn into a nasty televised proxy fight centered on the 2020/2024 presidential race.

It is too bad. A free-ranging statewide political campaign helps candidates hone their thoughts and positions based on feedback from voters. Some candidates even debate their opponents, giving voters a chance to make comparisons. But those events are verboten to the expensive paid political consultants from away who want candidates to stick to the message their experts have crafted using secretive polling data.

No one mentions that the experts from away are just offering educated guesses. Despite their complicated computers and algorithms, these political consultants and experts can’t predict the future. There is no Swami.

Given all this turmoil, this is not a good time to bet the ranch on your candidate based on the information you see in the latest polls.

This brings us back to what the good book has to say about avoiding predictions from a fortune teller.

Beware.