Things are Looking Up

• Democrats are enjoying a rare burst of giddy optimism about the “post-convention bounce.” Gallup’s seven-day tracking poll has Obama breaking out with a five-point lead among registered voters, 49-44.
• CNN now has the president up by six, breaking the 50 percent mark.
• Obama’s favorables are up, too.
• Just as worrisome for Romney: His lead among white voters is 53-41, but he may need more than 60 percent of them to win.
• The happy news for Dems just keeps coming: After a three-month losing streak, the Obama campaign out-raised Romney in August.
• Nate Silver now gives Obama an 80.7 percent chance of winning—up six percent since September 2.
• A “top Romney advisor” begs to differ, telling The National Review that the whole bounce meme is “horses**t.”
• Speaking on the record—and thus more politely— Romney’s pollster dismisses the bounce as a “sugar high.”
• It’s all just a media-and-pollster conspiracy, declares others on the right—including The American Spectator and The Weekly Standard. At Breitbart, John Nolte calls it a “media con.”
• But Chris Matthews is feeling that thrill up his leg again, rubbing his hands merrily at the upshot of an Obama victory: "The best way to beat the right-wing is to beat them. If he beats them in this election, they're finished.”
• Al Hunt, among others, stubbornly insists the election will still go down to the wire.