Obama has gathered support among female and independent voters who, following the tumultuous nature of the US financial markets over the past few days, have seen him as the candidate best able to manage the current dire state of the economy. He now leads McCain among likely voters by 47% to 45%.
Over the past two days McCain has been flailing as he attempted to justify his claim that despite one of the most dramatic weeks Wall Street, the ''fundamentals of our economy are strong''.
This error of judgement – along with the masses of coverage on the ramifications of the Lehmann brothers collapse - has put the Palin 'phenomenon' distinctly on the backburner.
In high-mode damage control McCain has appeared on six morning television shows in the US, explaining that what he meant was apparently in reference to the fundamentals of America… "which is the workers, their productivity, their innovation, their incredible performance for many, many years."
The ''excess and greed'' of Wall Street had ''betrayed'' the American working class, he added.
Obama has used McCain's 'fundamentals of the economy are strong' assurances to show how out of touch the Republican candidate is, not only with those suffering on Wall Street but the general public.
A series of advertisements released by the Democrats quote McCain effectively saying everything is fine, at the same time as headlines
"Lehman Brothers Collapses'', "Markets in Turmoil'' and "Foreclosures at 9.800 a day''.
A final word perhaps to one of Obama's people, in reference to a claim yesterday that John McCain had created the BlackBerry, who pointed out:
"If McCain hadn't said 'the fundamentals of our economy are strong' on the day of one of our nation's worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing he said all week.''
