Bombshell: McCain Takes Five-Point Lead Over Obama

Time to spin furiously, Baracky.

As Russian tanks rolled into the Republic of Georgia and the presidential candidates met over the weekend in the first joint issues forum of the fall campaign, the latest polling includes drama almost as compelling - Republican John McCain has taken a five-point lead over Democrat Barack Obama in the race for President, the latest Reuters/Zogby telephone survey shows.

McCain leads Obama by a 46% to 41% margin.

And McCain not only enjoys a five-point edge in a two-way race against Obama, but also in a four-way contest including liberal independent candidate Ralph Nader and Libertarian Bob Barr, the poll reveals. In the four-way contest, McCain wins 44% support, Obama 39%, Barr 3% and Nader 2%.

This latest Reuters/Zogby poll is a dramatic reversal from the identical survey taken last month – in the July 9-13 Reuters/Zogby survey, Obama led McCain, 47% to 40%. In the four-way race last month, Obama held a 10-point lead over McCain.

A 15-point swing. Boy, those glory days speaking in Berlin after the free concert sure seem like a long time ago, eh?

Slipping among Democrats, women and young voters.

What happened, Barry? Not enough support from those alleged Obamicans to make up the slack?

Certainly looks like that LA Times/Bloomberg poll was moving in the right direction.

One can only imagine the panic gripping Team Obama this morning. Of course, this will give Obama a perfect excuse (with a free pass from the Obamedia) to go after McCain on a personal level, which will only do more damage to him.

Expect a full-fledged freakout from the nutroots as well.

No matter how much the media and Team Obama will spin it, expect an all-out fusillade of negative attacks on McCain during the convention next week. Sure, Obama may get a slight bounce out of it, but he's sliding downhill rapidly and after promising hopenchange for so long, being seen as shrill and nasty may just finish him off.

Thanks to Hot Air for the link. Ed Morriseey notes:

Obama is in a free-fall. McCain got to the heart of the question about Obama, and especially after the crisis in Georgia, he has voters wondering whether Obama is up to the task of running the presidency as his first executive job in politics. Even a strong VP pick may not help reverse that perception — and could make it worse by overshadowing the nominee. Democrats may not have been in a weaker position at convention time since 1984.

More from Reuters.

Update: No movement in the daily Rasmussen numbers.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows
Barack Obama attracting 45% of the vote while John McCain earns 42%. When
"leaners" are included, it’s Obama 47% and McCain 46% (see recent daily results).