Below The Beltway

With two days to go until Election Day, it’s become impossible to deny that all signs point toward Barack Obama becoming the next President of the United States.

In the Rasmussen poll, Obama has a five-point lead over McCain and continues a trend that began nearly six weeks ago:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday once again shows Barack Obama with 51% of the vote while John McCain is five points back at 46%. This is the 38th straight day that Obama’s support has stayed between 50% and 52%

For the past seven days, Obama has been ahead by three to five points. For the month before that, the Democratic nominee was up by four to eight points every day.

Rasmussen’s poll also indicates that McCain’s negative campaign did nothing to impact Obama’s favorable ratings, and, more importantly, there’s a definite enthusiasm gap going into Tuesday’s voting:

Now, however, Obama is now viewed favorably by 55% of voters nationwide, McCain by 53% (see trends). Obama gets positive reviews from 88% of Democrats and 56% of unaffiliated voters. Ninety percent (90%) of Republicans and 55% of unaffiliateds say the same about McCain.

However, there is a definite enthusiasm gap when it comes to the candidates. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Democrats have a Very Favorable opinion. Only 55% of Republicans are that upbeat about McCain.

In the Gallup Daily poll, Obama continues to maintain significant leads under all three of Gallup’s voting scenarios:

PRINCETON, NJ — Voters’ presidential preferences remain favorable to a Barack Obama win on Tuesday, with 51% of traditional likely voters supporting the Democratic nominee for president, and 43% backing John McCain. An additional 1% say they support some other candidate, leaving 5% undecided.

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An expanded likely voter model uses only voters’ interest and self-professed likelihood to vote in the current election. On this basis, Obama leads by nine points — 52% to 43% — also with 1% supporting some other candidate and 5% undecided. The expanded model assumes that voter turnout may follow different patterns this year than historically, such as with greater participation by new or infrequent voters.

(…)

Obama’s lead over McCain among all registered voters has been stable, at or above eight points for each of the past five days

The news is basically the same in the other tracking polls. Obama is up by 6 points in the Zogby poll, up by 5 in the Hotline poll, up by 9 in the ABC News/Washington Post poll, and in what looks to be an outlier, up by 2 in the Investor’s Business Daily poll.

Additionally, the final CNN poll of the election season has Obama leading McCain by seven points.

There’s one more round of tracking polls to come out tomorrow, and then the voting starts.