You can tell how panicky some Democrats are getting because a few pundits are now openly calling for Obama to choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate.

It's not going to happen - probably; although I'd say the odds have gone up in the last 24 hours as a blizzard of polls all show that John McCain - to one degree or another - has closed on Obama and made this a real horse race.

CBS-NY Times poll has it Obama by 45-42 after it being a six point race last month. The NBC-Wall Street Journal poll has it by exactly the same count with McCain also coming back from a six point deficit.

And in one significant state poll, McCain has closed to within three points of Obama in Pennsylvania according to Rasmussen.

You might note that McCain's support has not risen as much as Obama has lost voters. Many drifted into the undecided column as Obama's foreign trip and Russia's aggression may have caused people to have second thoughts about the Illinois senator.

No doubt Obama will get a big bounce from the Democratic convention next week. But if it is less than 10 points the entire Democratic party might have a meltdown. That's because not only will McCain probably get a bump when he names his Vice President the day after the Democratic convention is over, but the following week is his turn in the sun where he is expected to get another boost.

This timing of the conventions - so close together as well as the late choice of Vice President has never been seen before so expectations about polls are probably off. In a perfect world, they should cancel each other out which would be good news for McCain.

But given everything that has happened so far, anything is possible - including McCain surging into the lead if things don't go well in Denver for the Democrats.