National Polls Favor Obama, State Polls Trend Toward McCain

Looking at the latest polls on the morning of Election Day, I see two contrary trends. On the one hand, the national polls seem to be trending toward Barack Obama. On the other, polls in seven battleground states with 114 electoral votes--Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania--seem to be trending over the last several days toward John McCain. Possible explanation: In the past week, there has been something closer to parity between the campaigns in ad saturation compared with earlier weeks, when the Obama campaign was far outspending the McCain campaign.

By Michael Barone