John McCain has closed in on Barack Obama in yet another major national poll. McCain now trails Obama by only 45 percent to 42 percent in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey conducted Aug. 15-18, down from the 6 point leads Obama held in June and July. Four percent answered "neither" and 8 percent were undecided. The margin of error is 3.1 percent.

One finding sure to stoke the fervor of Hillary Clinton diehards said if Clinton was the Democratic candidate, she would be leading 49 percent to 43 percent. That is tempered somewhat by the fact that, by the same margin, voters said they did not hope she would be president some day.

Obama still has a problem with those Clinton backers. Fifty-two percent of them say they will vote for Obama, but 21 percent are backing McCain, with an additional 27 percent who are undecided or want to vote for someone else.

Three national polls are out today with different pictures of the race, although none of them are particularly good news for Barack Obama. There has also been a series of state polls in the last two days which showed the Democrat having difficulty gaining any ground.

The George Washington University Battleground 2008 survey conducted Aug. 10-14 has John McCain in a dead heat with Obama leading him 47 percent to 46 percent with 2 percent preferring "other" and 19 percent undecided. The poll is conducted jointly by the Republican Tarrance Group and the Democratic firm of Lake Research Partners.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey conducted Aug. 15-18 says McCain now trails Obama by only 45 percent to 42 percent in, down from the 6 point leads Obama held in June and July. Four percent answered "neither" and 8 percent were undecided. The margin of error is 3.1 percent.

And a Reuters/Zogby poll conducted Aug. 14-17 has McCain moving out front 46 percent to 41 percent with 13 percent undecided. The margin of error is 3 points. Last month, Obama had led by 7 points.

These three polls come on the heels of yesterday's Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg survey that had Obama and McCain in a statistical tie, with Obama ahead 45 percent to 43 percent in a survey conducted Aug. 15-18. The margin of error was 3 points.

When you combine these with match-ups of McCain and Obama in eight competitive states for which polls came out yesterday and today, a picture emerges of an Obama campaign - at least at this point - losing some of the luster it had after he clinched the nomination, and either just holding his ground or slipping in the polls.