Fueled by a combined movement of undecided voters and former Hillary Clinton supporters that began during the course of the Democratic National Convention the Gallup Daily tracking poll is reporting that Barrack Obama has reached the increased his support to a solid 50% point.

Gallup Presidential Poll for 8-10 to 9-2, 2008: Obama 50, McCain 42

Meanwhile the Gallup polls are also showing that McCain may have bought into his campaign’s own hype regarding Sarah Palin’s ability to draw in Hillary Clinton’s supporters.

These voters are, by a 65% “Certain Obama” to 12% “Certain McCain” margin, very heavily weighing towards Obama.  Considering that prior to the Democratic National Convention (and Palin’s announcement) McCain’s certainty numbers were at 16% he’s not only not received his much-needed post Veep bounce, he’s lost ground.

Some on the Right are nitpicking the polling data and claiming that this is all about race but does anyone (other then GOP pundits in denial) really buy into that narrative?  Even considering that, as Kyle of Comments From Left Field loves to remind people, “polls aren’t the most reliable things in the world” they do, when aggregated together, often show trends fairly accurately.  In this case that trend only points in one direction: up for Obama.

Whether McCain continues to lose ground or fail to break even with Obama after the GOP convention remains to be seen but for now things are looking good for Obama.

Update:

tristo of Hullabaloo has a slightly less cheerful interpretation of the polling numbers:

You probably think that’s very good news. But let me try to give a very rough sense of what these poll numbers mean in concrete terms.

You are taking a stroll through your local shopping mall. 10 people are walking your way. Look into their eyes. They look normal, but about four of them are so completely stupid or so totally out of touch they actually think McCain should be president and Palin vice-president.

That’s scary. We have to do better.