Clinton closes gap in Gallup poll

Today's numbers from the Gallup daily tracking poll show Hillary Clinton closing most of the gap separating her from Barack Obama. He leads now by a margin of only 1%, down from 7 points in yesterday's poll (a shift from 49-42% to 46-45%).

Four things: First, Gallup hasn't registered such a steep day-to-day change for nearly two weeks. Second, both candidates are showing significant movement. Third, there's nothing especially interesting going on with numbers on the Republican side that would explain today's sudden movement. Fourth, it's a reversal of the longer term trend. Obama's numbers have been rising pretty steadily since Feb. 5, while Clinton's have been dropping steadily. Then three days ago the support for both flattened out. So it could be that the momentum has been shifting back to Clinton for a few days.

It'll be tempting to read a lot into the events of the last day or two, especially the rhetorical slips of the Obamas. Might not be justified, given that Barack Obama's rise stalled before these stories broke. In any case, Rasmussen's daily tracking poll still has Obama leading 46-42% today.