FWIW I'm running XP SP2 on a Dell P4 2.0 Ghz with an ATI Radeon X300, drivers updated May '08 - if that matters.  I can give more details if you need them.  I'm playing 1.02.24

After some odd things made me wonder about the game mechanics, I did the following experiment:

Start a quick-play game as Obama vs. McCain in Campaign 2008 with default settings and the normal difficulty.

Home state is Ill.  Fly to NY and build a level 1 HQ.

Now I pick one issue - we'll use high gas prices.  I open the "state details" dialogue box in each state and see my candidate is -25 on this issue in both states.  I also look at the little "why am I winning" dialogue to see my issues scores in each state - NY is 1062; Ill. is 1043.

Still in NY, I take out a newspaper ad that I'm opposed to high gas prices.  Let's check my stats again now.  I have not even ended the turn.

In NY, I've gone from -25 to -8.  The wrong way.  My issues score has dropped from 1062 to 1048. 

In Ill, I've gone from -25 to -5.  Also the wrong way.  My issues score has dropped from 1043 to 1023.

I'm not making any guarantees, but here's what I think is happening, after a bit more testing.  Some candidates have a position on different issues.  These can be seen by clicking the candidate info button, and checking the issues tab.   For example, Obama is -90 on Universal health care and -80 on withdrawing from Iraq.  But your candidate also has a "default"position on all the other issues - likely based on party affiliation - that can be seen by looking at a state and checking the "state details" button.  You may only see some issues, depending on the HQ level you have in that state.  For those issues where your position is not explicitly specified, taking any action - buying an ad or making a speech - will reset your national position to 5 or -5 , depending on the issue and your party.  In my example, I got a 3 point bonus from the newspaper ad in NY, which then took me from -5 to -8.

Can anyone confirm this?  Am I just missing something about the mechanics?  Thanks in advance for any thoughts.