United Statespresidential candidate John McCain nowretains a lead over Barack Obama inseveral polls conducted in the past few days. Both ZogbyInternational and RasmussenReports have McCain with a slight, but not statisticallysignificant lead. The most recent Gallup tracking pollhas McCain with a statistical lead of 5.0 percent. The Day toDay Politics Poll Average also has a slight, but notstatistically significantly lead of 0.4% for McCain.

Obama had a 6.0 percent lead in the Day to Day Politics PollAverage after the DemocraticNational Convention, but now is trailing after the RepublicanNational Convention and the announcement of Sarah Palin asMcCain’s running mate. This is the first time McCain has led Obamain the poll average since the two candidates emerged as theirparty’s presumptive nominees after the primaries.

After McCain chose Palin, the current Governor of Alaska, as hisvice presidential candidate and the RepublicanNational Convention, a Gallup poll had shown that thepercentage of Republicans who are enthusiastic about voting has increased by18%. The Democratsenthusiasm has only increased by 10% since the addition ofJoe Biden to thenomination ticket and after the Democratic National Convention.

The Day to Day Politics Poll Average for the past weekused the Gallup Tracking poll, the Rasmussen Trackingpoll, the CNN poll, USA Today/Gallup,Hotline/FD, the CBS News and the Zogbypoll.