Politics on the Hudson

Yesterday’s release of a Reuters/Zogby International poll that found Republican John McCain with a five percentage point lead over Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential race appears to have not been a fluke.

Two other new polls show McCain has closed the gap to a statistical dead heat.

A CBS News-New York Times poll of 869 registered voters taken Friday through Tuesday finds Obama’s lead has narrowed from six points to three over the last two weeks. The new poll found Obama ahead of McCain, 45 percent to 42 percent, compared to a 45 percent to 39 percent lead two weeks before.

Likewise, an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll telephone survey of 1,005 registered voters taken Friday through Monday found Obama ahead 45 percent to 42 percent for McCain. That three percentage point lead is half the size of six point lead he registered in July.

Both the CBS-New York Times poll and the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll had a margin of error of around 3 percentage points, plus of minus, meaning that McCain is in a virtual tie  with his Democratic rival.

Could these findings have a last minute impact on who Obama chooses as his running mate? Maybe Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is still in the veepstakes.