John McCain has gone from 3 points behind Barack Obama before the Democratic Convention to 3 points ahead in the latest Fox News poll conducted Sept. 8-9, leading 45 percent to 42 percent with 2 percent choosing "other," 2 percent saying they don't know and 10 percent undecided. McCain's lead is the same as the margin of error at 3 points. One major factor in the turnaround is that McCain now leads Obama 46 percent to 31 percent among independents after being statistically tied with him in August. That squares with a Gallup poll conducted Sept. 5-7 that saw McCain's support among independents rise from 40 percent to 52 percent.

McCain's favorable to unfavorable ratio is 60 percent to 33 percent compared to Obama's 57 percent to 36 percent. That's little changed from August. Sarah Palin's is 54 percent to 27 percent and Joseph Biden's is 51 percent to 29 percent.

As other polls have indicated McCain's choice of Palin as running mate has made more difference than Obama's selection of Biden. Forty-one percent of voters say the pick of Palin makes them more likely to vote for McCain compared to 31 percent who said it makes them less likely to do so, while 26 percent say it will make no difference to their decisions. Thirty-seven percent said the choice of Biden will make no difference compared to 35 percent who said it would make them more likely to vote Democratic and 25 percent who said it would make them less likely.

John McCain's post-convention bounce owes in part to the increase in support he has drawn among independents and even some Democrats, according to a Gallup analysis of its polling for Aug. 29-31 and Sept. 5-7. His backing from independents rose from 40 percent to 52 percent and among Democrats from 9 percent to 14 percent. Prior to this sampling, McCain had received no higher than 48 percent of the independent vote and Obama no higher than 46 percent. Twenty percent of "pure" independents - those with no leaning towards either party - backed McCain before the convention, a number that has grown to 39 percent.