Obama stretches on McCain.

After several months of a virtual tie, Sen. Barack Obama has begun to surge past his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain. The latest Associated Press poll shows that the thin man from Illinois is really beginning to strike a cord with his message of change. Obama now has a 7-point margin among likely voters, the poll reveals. The shift is notable, given that the two men have been shadowing each other in polls even before their respective party conventions. Until now – as the public is bombarded with news of a financial tsunami, rising job losses and an intra-Republican implosion ignited by a vice presidential candidate who daily provides late-night comedians with enough material for a lifetime – Obama and McCain have traded skimpy 1- to 3-point leads that fall within the margin of error. And aside from his 48 -to 41 lead, Obama is pummeling McCain in several key battleground states, such as Florida, Iowa, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Associated Press reports that Republican leaders are beginning to bend McCain’s ear over concerns that his candidacy could be dissolving. On the other hand, Democrats are expressing optimism that Obama’s 7 points could swell in coming weeks as Nov. 4 gets closer. “We have a light optimism,” said David Redlawsk, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention who teaches political science at the University of Iowa. “We’ve already learned in the last several weeks that we can be whipsawed back very, very quickly.”

TAGS: McCain, obama, polls

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