Neck and Neck

Recent Gallup polls show that Barack Obama and John McCain are running an extremely close race. Obama led in the polls after the Democratic National Convention, but not anymore. Currently McCain leads 49% to 44%. The surge of support comes straight out of the Republican National Convention, where newcomer Sarah Palin addressed the nation and McCain officially accepted his party's nomination. This is the biggest lead McCain has enjoyed over his rival since January. Obama experienced a similar boost in the polls following the Democratic National Convention in June, but now he's slipping.

The daily Gallup polls don't paint a perfect picture, but they do show quite clearly that this will be a close race. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll also conducted after the RNC shows Obama leading McCain 47% to 46%, but if you factor in the margin of error, the numbers are too close to call.

McCain received a similar boost among independents in the Gallup polls taken after the RNC:

This is bad news for Obama supporters who thought their miracle man was invincible. And now that the McCain ticket is official, he'll be getting $84 million from the U.S. Treasury for his campaign. Obama decided to go without federal financing and instead relies on public donors; however, his record breaking fund raising hasn't been up to par. The New York Times reported on Monday that Obama's fund raising has been "extremely anemic" and needs more donors to contribute the maximum amount of $2,300.

George Washington warned that the biggest danger to American Democracy was the emergence of a two party system, luckily that never happened. Ron Paul is rumored to give a speech soon urging his supporters to vote for a third party, but no one seems to care. Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is still in the running. So far, he's almost raised $12,000.

Also, Sarah Palin is hot.