And yet The One still leads by seven overall. Ace is underwhelmed, as is Geraghty, who notes that the touchstone here isn’t whether you’re less likely to vote for Obama but how much less likely. Incidentally, who repels more independents? Bill Ayers…

…or Sarah Palin?

She’s only a net -12 whereas Ayers is a net -26, so we’ll call that a moral victory. Her favorables are still net positive, 47/42, but that’s the lowest spread among the four people on the tickets and down 22 points since early September. McCain is at +13; The One is +26. I don’t know if it was the Couric interview or SNL or playing the attack dog on the stump, but she’s tanking. And if the Troopergate report is bad, she might well be net negative by the time of the next poll. As it is, even a small plurality of Republicans now expect Obama to win, 39/35.

People still hate the bailout too, of course, although they like the idea of being bailed out themselves. If you want to know why the Dow continues to melt down, here’s part of the reason:

Exit question: How bad is this going to be?