Obama inches ahead in tight race

Barack Obama has picked up steam.

Over the past two weeks he's seen a small but steady rise in the polls. Immediately after the Republican Convention, the Illinois senator trailed his rival John McCain by three points in the various daily tracking polls. Senator Obama is now up by as many as six or seven points.

Pollsters say that's in part because the vital independent voters are now shifting his way.

"There are still a substantial number of independents that are undecided, principally independent women," says pollster John Zogby. "But as a group, they've begun to swing over to Obama, but not in large enough numbers yet to close the deal."

Pundits point to a variety of reasons for the shift in the dynamics of the presidential race. First is the steady stream of bad economic news. Polls consistently show that voters think Democrats are better at handling the economy.

Then there's the way Senator McCain reacted to the crisis. Initially calling the fundamentals of the economy strong, he then decided the crisis was so bad he needed to suspend his campaign, even calling for a postponement of the first presidential debate on Friday.

His campaign had hoped that would reinforce his stance as a leader that put the country first. But to many people it instead reinforced the notion that McCain could be impulsive and erratic.

There's also the Sarah Palin factor.

She continues to energize the Republican base. But in her recent interview on CBS, the Alaska governor did not appear to have a grasp of a variety of issues.

That's prompted some women conservative columnists, who once supported her, to call for her to step down for the good of the party.

Governor Palin's favorability ratings among independents are also going down as her unfavorable ratings are on the rise.

"I'm not sure it's gotten to the point where she's hurting [McCain,] but she's clearly not helping," says political analyst Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Friday night's debate in Oxford, Miss., which did happen despite McCain's calls to have it postponed, has also helped Obama.

A number of postdebate polls show that most viewers thought the Illinois senator did a "better job."

A USA Today/Gallup poll released Sunday also found that by a 52 percent to 35 percent margin, viewers thought Obama offered better proposals to solve the country's problems.

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