Relieved sigh

So the RNC/Palin bounce appears to be essentially over. After a few days' worth of positive trends, Obama now retakes the lead in all the major tracking polls:

Gallup O+2
Research 2000 O+4
Rassmussen O+1
Hotline/Diageo O+4
Zogby O+2
CBS/NYT O+5

I doubt this is simply the ebbing of the "bounce:" there are a lot of other factors at play. McCain's prolific dishonesty, some growing disenchantment with Palin, the economic meltdown; it's been a rough week for McCain, and Obama's tried to make some hay while the sun's shining. Given that, one might wonder whether this is too small of a shift. But compared to where we were a week ago, I'll gladly take it and hope we can build on it.

The electoral map polls aren't so pretty, but I gather (according to Nate Silver at 538) that those polls tend to lag a bit behind the national polls. There are some new ones out which show Obama even in FL and ahead in OH, but those are outliers at this point.

I like where we are. A week ago I was facing a terrible fear that we were squandering a god-given opportunity; we still may. But there's a nice trend, the fundamentals still favor the dems, and we have a slender lead. We're not into the homestretch -- We are just entering the final turn. But we're getting closer....