Obama’s lead in the RealClearPolitics average of polls, which on October 14 was 8.2 points, has now dropped to five — a fairly significant fall caused when some older polls that showed big Obama margins (a Los Angeles Times poll giving Obama a nine-point lead and a CBS poll giving him a 14-point lead) were phased out of the constantly-updated average. In the current average, the biggest Obama lead in any poll is seven points, and the smallest is three points.