That's the best description of the fall of Obama's poll numbers from Newsweek -- the successor poll to the one that showed a 15-point Obama lead a couple weeks back, leading Lefties and journalists (but I repeat myself) to conclude that the presidential race was over.

A month after emerging victorious from the bruising Democratic nominating contest, some of Barack ObamaÂ’s glow may be fading. In the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, the Illinois senator leads Republican nominee John McCain by just 3 percentage points, 44 percent to 41 percent. The statistical dead heat is a marked change from last monthÂ’s NEWSWEEK Poll, where Obama led McCain by 15 points, 51 percent to 36 percent.

Obama’s rapid drop comes at a strategically challenging moment for the Democratic candidate. Having vanquished Hillary Clinton in early June, Obama quickly went about repositioning himself for a general-election audience–an unpleasant task for any nominee emerging from the pander-heavy primary contests and particularly for a candidate who’d slogged through a vigorous primary challenge in most every contest from January until June. Obama’s reversal on FISA legislation, his support of faith-based initiatives and his decision to opt out of the campaign public-financing system left him open to charges he was a flip-flopper. In the new poll, 53 percent of voters (and 50 percent of former Hillary Clinton supporters) believe that Obama has changed his position on key issues in order to gain political advantage.

More seriously, some Obama supporters worry that the spectacle of their candidate eagerly embracing his old rival, Hillary Clinton, and traveling the country courting big donors at lavish fund-raisers, may have done lasting damage to his image as an arbiter of a new kind of politics. This is a major concern since ObamaÂ’s outsider credentials, have, in the past, played a large part in his appeal to moderate, swing voters. In the new poll, McCain leads Obama among independents 41 percent to 34 percent, with 25 percent favoring neither candidate. In JuneÂ’s NEWSWEEK Poll, Obama bested McCain among independent voters, 48 percent to 36 percent.

Yep -- those independent voters are coming around to McCain, having seen the weaknesses of the Democrat candidacy. You know, inconsistency and inexperience.

Oh, and Newsweek didn't stack the poll with Democrats this time.

One interesting revelation -- there are still 30% of those who supported Hillary Clinton for the Democrat nomination opposed to Obama's candidacy -- with one out of every six former Hillary supporters backing John McCain's candidacy.

H/T Hot Air, Newsbusters

Posted by: Greg at 07:56 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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