The poll numbers have been relentlessly horrific for the McCain camp all week. But today they’re getting their first bits of good news in a long while:

  • Survey USA puts them ahead by a point in Minnesota.
  • The Battleground poll shows Obama’s lead narrowing from 5 percent to 3 percent.
  • The Hotline poll shows Obama’s lead reducing slightly from 6 percent to 5 percent.

It’s not a ton to hang your hat on, but it seems clear that the Wall Street mess/bailout/rescue/financial crisis has been terrible for McCain’s numbers. This is probably for several reasons, but among them, President Bush has taken a much higher profile in recent weeks than he had in previous months. This probably reminds anti-Bush independents and moderates why they’re angry with Republicans these days.

If other issues come to displace the bailout as the dominant issue, McCain should see at least a modest improvement in his polling numbers…

UPDATE: I forgot – most of the polling in Virginia for McCain has been terrible lately, but Mason-Dixon, one of the pollsters I trust the most, put him up 3.