The news of the day in national politics will be Gen. David Petraus' appearance on the Hill and questioning by McCain, Clinton and Obama, but the news of the morning is a new Quinnipiac poll in Pennsylvania.
It shows Obama gaining on Clinton, now behind by only 6 points, one of several polls that show the race closing from a double-digit Clinton lead a couple of weeks ago. The last Q poll, a week ago, had Hillary up by 9, 50-41. Now, it's 50-44.
The reasons? Obama may be getting over the Jeremiah Wright hit, which was his low point. Hillary suffered from Bosnia, maybe a little from the Mark Penn mess during recent polling (polling was April 3-6). Obama has gotten the Bob Casey endorsement, had a successful bus tour, and has been outspending Clinton on ads.
The pollsters found Hillary losing ground among women, from 54-37 to 54-41. Her lead among whites has shrunk from 59-34 to 56-38. Men have gone from 46-46 to 48-44 for Obama. He holds sizable leads in Philly and its suburbs, and is -- surprisingly -- hanging close to Clinton among voters focused on the economy.
Quinnipiac's Clay Richards: "With two weeks to go, Sen. Barack Obama is knocking on the door of a major political upset in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. Obama is not only building on his own constituencies, but is taking away voters in Sen. Hillary Clinton's strongest areas - whites including white women, voters in the key swing Philadelphia suburbs and those who say the economy is the most important issue in the campaign."
Of course, it's also possible that nothing has really happened. The poll has a +/- margin of error of 2.7 points. So a shift from a lead of 9 to 6 could just be within the statistical variation. But the last 6 polls have shown Obama within 6 or closer, and the Pollster.com average is closing:
