Barack Obama is leading John McCain 50 percent to 41 percent among likely voters with 2 percent preferring someone else and 8 percent undecided in a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll conducted Oct. 10-13. The margin of error is 3 points. Obama's lead comes down to 9 points if Libertarian Bob Barr, Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader are included.

For some context, this is what the other major national polls showed this week:

• New York Times/CBS News: Obama 53, McCain 39.
• USA Today/Gallup: Obama 51, McCain 44.
• Washington Post/ABC News Obama 53, McCain 43.
• Newsweek: Obama 52, McCain 41.

Here are the latest numbers on the "enthusiasm gap" based on Gallup polling Aug. 30-31: Democrats have greater enthusiasm about this election than Republicans by 61 percent to 42 percent. However, the level of Democratic enthusiasm has declined steadily from 79 percent in February until a small uptick after the convention, and that appears to reflect the fact that the number of Clinton supporters during the primaries who expressed enthusiasm dropped from 77 percent to 46 percent.