It took a while to arrive, perhaps, but Barack Obama seemed to get a convention/vice presidential selection bounce in the latest Gallup poll.

The new poll shows Obama leading John McCain by 48 percent of registered voters to 42 percent. That's about the lead he'd maintained in August in the polling groups daily tracking poll, up until a couple weeks ago, when numbers for the two fell into the "too close to call" category. In recent days, the poll once showed McCain leading Obama by a couple points.

So, once again, the usual disclaimors: this is a poll, this is August, it's national and not state by state, etc...

And, perhaps most importantly, the GOP convention is next week, and when they're dominating the airwaves, they're also likely to get a bump in the polls.

But for the Obama campaign, it has to be a relief not to stagnate during a time in the campaign that usually brings around support.