Mccain's stunning collapse in polls after Lehman Brother's bankruptcy.

[pbrower2a]

The Presidential race was close -- close enough that McCain was ahead after the Republican national convention when all attention was on him, and Obama was ahead after the Democratic national convention when all attention was on him. If that makes the difference in polling, then things are close.

In the autumn of 2008, America was going into an economic meltdown that started to resemble the one that started the Great Depression. To be sure, McCain was not President as this meltdown happened, but his Party had the Presidency.  McCain failed to have a plan for  reversing or mitigating the meltdown and Obama did.

What should have been a close election except for the economic meltdown quickly drifted to a 'mild' landslide in which McCain lost by nearly 200 electoral votes. One state after another went from 'in reach' to 'out of reach' for McCain, who lost all of the 'close' states except Georgia and Missouri.