There is accumulating evidence that McCain's convention bounce may, in fact, be more of a bump, akin to the sustained bump that Bush got after his 2004 convention, or that Gore got after his 2000 convention.

Today we see Rasmussen showing McCain again on top in the tracking poll, giving some indication that the numbers have started to revolve around a new midpoint.  Moreover, the Diageo/Hotline tracking poll now shows McCain with a two-point lead.

The cross-tabs for the Hotline poll are even more amazing.  Looking at the issues comparison, we see the following:

Healthcare:  Obama +9 (45/36)

Economy: McCain +1 (43/44)

National Security: McCain +25 (33/58)

Energy:  Obama +1 (44/43)

Consider that in June, the numbers looked like this:

Economy:  Obama +6 (43/37)

War in Iraq: McCain +8 (41/49)

Healthcare:  Obama +13 (44/31)

On the eve of the Democratic convention, the numbers looked like this:

Economy:  Obama +8 (48/40)

War in Iraq:  McCain +9 (40/49)

Energy:  Obama +12 (49/37)

Healthcare: Obama +11 (47/36)

In other words, it is looking like there has been a fundamental shift in the way the people view the issue agenda, not just the way that they view the candidates.  McCain has improved relative to Obama in just about every way, pre-to-post convention.

Looking at polling report, we see ABC News showing similar gains for McCain.  From June polling he has gone from -16 to -5 on the economy, from +1 to +10 on Iraq, from +14 to +20 on terrorism, from +6 to +12 on international affairs, from -15 to -2 on energy policy, and from -8 to -1 on taxes. 

The typical fight in this country over the past 20 years or so has been a Republican party with a disadvantage on bread-and-butter issues (Example:  Look at the Sept. 27-30 ABC News poll from 2007 showing generic Democrat with a 30-point lead over generic Republican on health care), an advantage on national security, and an advantage on leadership (with the exception of the Clinton years).  If McCain has minimized the Dems' advantage on bread-and-butter issues, he is in better shape than I had imagined.

Of course remember, Gore's bump in 2000 and Bush's bounce in 2004 only lasted until the first debate . . .