Presidential Prospects: Monday Afternoon Update

Bad news for McCain-Palin out of Pennsylvania. Four new polls put the Republicans between 6 and 14 points down. Even discounting the Zogby poll as tilting too far to the Democrats, the news that the gap in Rasmussen has widened from 4 to 6 counters GOP cheerleading that they're on the way back.

Little change elsewhere. The one new poll in Florida has Obama up by 1.3 percent and the latest in Ohio has him up 2. And there's no solace for McCain in Virginia: the Democrats are up 6.

On to other important business: the contests for the Senate appear to be solidifying, with the Republicans holding onto three seats (Georgia, Mississippi, and Kentucky) that had come under pressure in the last few weeks. On the other side of the fence, however, the Republican incumbent Felon Ted Stevens (Alaska) now appearing to be heading to jail rather than back to Congress, and Elizabeth Dole (Republican, North Carolina) is looking in desperate straits in North Carolina. Add in certain Democrat gains in New Hampshire and Colorado and a strong advantage in Oregon, and that puts the Democrats in a clear majority in the Senate for the first time in decades.

The one toss-up race is in Minnesota, where Al Franken, formerly of Saturday Night Live and best-selling book fame, is still holding his edge over incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. To say more on this would tip off our clear bias in this contest....

More on the Senate and House of Representatives in tomorrow's last-minute update.