Frank Newport, from Gallup, reminded us on FOX last night that two of fourteen popular vote presidential winners — Ronald Reagan and Al Gore — faced, in the week before the election, deficits similar to the one facing John McCain. Reagan had the benefit of a debate close to the end of the race. Gore had a bump, it was surmised, from the revelation of Bush’s drunk driving arrest. In other words, something happened.

It is unclear whether the drip, drip, drip of concerns about Barack Obama — his redistributive economic philosophy, most importantly — is enough to lift McCain into the lead. Joe the Plumber might be that something. In this case,  the messenger, oddly, is someone not on the ticket (Joe), someone who has come to symbolize the little guy. (And the elevation of Sarah Palin has magnified the message of elite liberalism vs. middle American entrepreneurism.)

So, there is a crack which McCain might just slip through. His campaign’s own shortcomings may have contributed to his predicament. But he is just the guy to cheat political death. After all, he’s done it before.