McCain's Move

The polls remain scattered on the presidential race, with the small tilt back toward Barack continuing and signaling that McCain needs something new to close the gap.

Zobgy, which two days ago showed a 3 point lead for Barack, now has the race at 8 points.

Obama leads McCain 50 percent to 42 percent among likely U.S. voters in the latest three-day tracking poll, up from a 6-point advantage for Obama on Monday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

"It was another very big day for Obama," said pollster John Zogby. "Things clearly are moving in Obama's direction."

It was the second consecutive day that Obama gained ground on McCain as the two head into the final sprint to the November 4 election.

Rasmussen, however, continues to show a closer race, still indicating a 4% lead for Barack.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Barack Obama attracting 50% of the vote while John McCain earns 46%. The race has remained very stable over the past month and Obama’s support has not dipped below 50% in nearly a month (see trends).

Barack is now seen as the better leader. Scary.

Forty-eight percent (48%) of voters now say that Obama is a better leader than McCain while 42% hold the opposite view. That’s the first time all year that Obama has held the advantage on this question.

And the electoral college tally is strongly in Obama's favor.

Rasmussen Reports data indicates that Obama currently has the edge in every state won by John Kerry four years ago. However, of the states won by George Bush, McCain is trailing in four and five others are considered a toss-up. As a result, Electoral College projections now show Obama leading 260-163. When “leaners” are included, Obama leads 300-174. A total of 270 Electoral Votes are needed to win the White House.

Gallup jumped to a 5% lead for Barack yesterday, but they don't update until this afternoon.