Now Trailing McCain Among Likely Voters, Obama Hastily Plans Trip to Foreign Land: The U.S. Senate

Sure, he's popped in for a few votes and photos ops, but maybe he should take his day job a bit more seriously before anointing himself President of Earth.

Especially now that those halcyon days of last week seem so far away.

Could it be the people realize what a colossal phony this guy is?

Republican presidential candidate John McCain moved from being behind by 6 points among "likely" voters a month ago to a 4-point lead over Democrat Barack Obama among that group in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. McCain still trails slightly among the broader universe of "registered" voters. By both measures, the race is tight.

The Friday-Sunday poll, mostly conducted as Obama was returning from his much-publicized overseas trip and released just this hour, shows McCain now ahead 49%-45% among voters that Gallup believes are most likely to go to the polls in November. In late June, he was behind among likely voters, 50%-44%.

Among registered voters, McCain still trails Obama, but by less. He is behind by 3 percentage points in the new poll (47%-44%) vs. a 6-point disadvantage (48%-42%) in late June.

Results based on the survey of 791 likely voters have margins of error of +/- 4 percentage points -- so McCain's lead is not outside that range. Results based on the survey of 900 registered voters also have margins of error of +/- 4 percentage points.

Of course, there is some wild fluctuation among polls, but one must wonder if Obama can't even crack 50% with the unrelenting media fawning boosting him, then there are surely danger signs ahead.

Somewhere tonight, Hillary cackles.

Question: How long until Obama comes out for drilling off the coast, now that he'll be pretending to care about domestic issues?