It's a Tie

The fallout from McCain's mishandling of the economy conversation over the past 8 or 9 days peaked a few days ago, according to the polls, when Barack retook the lead and stretched it to 6 points in the Gallup poll. Today....

Obama's three percentage point advantage over McCain in today's report,
based on Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Sept. 20-22, is within the margin of error for the survey. Obama led the race by a slightly greater margin of four and six points
in each of the previous five Gallup Poll Daily election updates (starting with
last Thursday's report).

Rasmussen has the race even.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows the
race for the White House is tied once again—Barack Obama
attracts 48% of the vote and so does John McCain (see trends). Both men are now viewed favorably by 54% and Rasmussen Markets data currently gives Obama a 52.4% chance of victory.

Friday night, which will bring the first debate, could send the campaign off on a new trajectory.

With the race so close, the debates scheduled to begin this Friday night could
be more significant than usual. That’s especially true since 18% of voters say
they are either uncommitted or could change their mind before voting.