Wow. I was never skeptical — I’ve been a rampant Barack Obama supporter since the DNC in ‘04 — but October was the lowest of the lows for Obamaites. Rock effin’ bottom. At that point Hillary Clinton led Barack Obama nationally by 21 points, and the pundits were all but handing her the Democratic nomination. I chalk that up to him being an unknown commodity to most Americans prior to the last few months, as well as to her being so well known.

Now that Americans have got to know Barack, they’ve decided that they don’t like the old Bill and Hill show as much as they thought they did. A brand new Reuters/Zogby poll shows that the two Democratic frontrunners are now tied:

Clinton, a former first lady who would be the first woman U.S. president, held a 21-point edge over Obama in October. He cut that to 8 points by last month, and the new survey gave her a 39 percent to 38 percent edge.

Her 1-point lead was well within the poll’s margin of error of 4.7 percentage points.

Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, and Clinton were essentially deadlocked among a variety of groups, including men, women, Democrats and independents. Obama led substantially, 65 percent to 15 percent, among black voters.

Obama barely led among voters under age 24, a substantial drop in support from last month, but led Clinton among voters aged 55 to 69, normally one of her strengths.

While the young voters drop is a tad bit discouraging, I think that will rise when Obama hits more states and young people get the chance to see him up close. What is very encouraging is not only Obama’s staggering lead among black voters, but also that he won the 55-69 demographic.

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