John, an honest liberal analyst agrees with our collective sense about the GOP Convention:

Here’s what I think it’s safe to conclude: the GOP had a successful convention. John McCain now holds a 3-point lead over Barack Obama in the Gallup daily tracking poll, his largest lead since May. And Rasmussen shows the race tied at 48-48, after having shown Barack Obama with a 5-6 point lead at the peak of his convention bounce. We will have to see how the other polls weigh in. More critically, we will have to see what the new state-level electoral landscape looks like. Since John McCain’s daily results seem to be improving over the course of the tracking window, by the way, we should probably expect this bounce to get bigger before it gets smaller.

And, if in fact, the addition of Sarah Palin to the ticket has not just shifted opinion, but also impacted potential turnout (which generally is not observable in these polls) by energizing the Republican base, it is a very big deal.