Obama continues to gain ground in the Gallup tracking poll, making this the 8th straight day in which the race has either stayed steady or moved in Obama’s direction:
It’s hard to know exactly what’s caused this shift, but it’s plausibly connected to the trend I lament in a new TAP Online column wherein national security has totally vanished from the campaign. In most polls, McCain seems to do better than Obama on national security. So when the public attention shifts away from national security and toward, say, a giant financial crisis, that benefits Obama. Under the circumstances, you can see the interest in trying to make sure the attention stays on the economy. But one thing I don’t note in the article that is worth mentioning somewhere is the fact that this strategy leaves Obama pretty hostage to events. A terrorist attack, a crisis abroad, or even a new tape from bin Laden could easily throw the election back to McCain if Obama doesn’t lay the groundwork for an argument on those issues.
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