I’d say the fact that Barry is riding as high as he is now in the polls on the Dem side, drawing huge crowds, and the subject of a fawning media, and still losing to McCain - , is a relatively positive sign right now. These head to head polls are fairly meaningless, but right now the GOP as a party is down, McCain has been wildly unpopular among the right, and Obama is trouncing the shrew. Despite all those factors, the fact that McCain is slightly ahead is very promising.
I’m not a McCain fan (obviously, if anyone’s been reading my posts), but he would likely beat Obama.