Presidential Momentum Swing

While we knew McCain and the Republicans would get a boost in the polls following last week's convention, no one would have suspected it to be this dramatic. The latest Gallup tracking poll now has McCain moving ahead of Obama 48% to 45% respectively-- marking McCain's largest share of the vote since tracking began in early March.

Looking at this from the bright side one could argue such a post-convention bump in the polls marks the absolute ceiling for McCain support and while this has pushed him to the front his meager lead proves that merely rousing your conservative base won't get the job done.  This is good news for Obama who has consistently shown an ability to attract moderate voters, a must have characteristic in the few swing states that will decide this year's presidential election-- Indiana included.

Gallup aside, what makes me worry even more though is the rapid movement of an Obama presidency over at Intrade, the popular prediction market that prides themselves on the accuracy of their aggregate opinion approach-- valuing market trends over polling fluctuations. At yesterday's close,  Obama's median share price had fallen nearly seven points, down to a low of 55.35, and currently sits even lower at 52. This puts McCain devastatingly close at 48, and amounts to closing nearly a twenty point gap in just over a week's time. 

Folks this is a scary momentum swing indeed. As bloggers though we need to take this news standing up, and thus be sure to fire back and let everyone know how important this election is for our country. With a renewed focus and some hard work, I really like our chances of righting the ship.