If the polls are more favorable at this stage to McCain then he deserves, that could be a good thing
The now popular meme about recent polls, which show an uptick for McCain, is that they are somehow a way for Republican leaning pollsters to try and influence the election in the Republican's favor. I think this is nonsense for the following reasons:
1.)To the extent that the public perceives this to be an election the Republicans can win, the more likely it is that apathetic voters will go to the polls. After all, if you think Obama is a shoe in, why bother?
2.)The so called PUMA vote would be much more of a threat if they think they can protest and not effect the election in a meaningful manner. The closer it is, the more likely the protesters will come back into the fold.
3.)Along with generally apathetic, or low energy voters, the closer the election is perceived to the the more likely it is that the youth vote will actually find their way to the polls and vote.
In fact, everyone is more likely to vote if they think their vote will make a difference and we all know that large turnouts favor the Democrats. So, why are the polls showing such a close race? I suspect this is partly the polling methods which oversample older voters but more importantly Obama is the "new guy" and he is new in a way that is challenging to older voters. I suspect that, much as occurred with Reagan, as this cycle moves forward people will become more comfortable with Obama's newness and the generally favorable issue environment will bring them around to his side.