After seeing off Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama looked certain to make the White House. However, as Jim Dee reports, the Democratic could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

As the Democratic Party’s faithful gather for this week’s party love-fest in Denver, Barack Obama had likely been expecting a momentum-capping coronation that would put clear blue water between him and Republican rival John McCain

After all, the US economy is in the dumps and America is beset by domestic and international woes that most people blame on a Republican administration fronted by a president with some of the lowest approval ratings ever recorded.

Since seeing off Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in early June, Obama has been floating on air.

Clinton had the most well-tuned and best financed Democratic machine imaginable. But Obama trumped her.

And, having become the first African-American to ever garner enough primary season delegates to be nominated as presidential nominee of a major US party, it seemed the world was his oyster.

What chance then would a septuagenarian like John McCain stand against the youthful Obama? Yet, in perhaps one of the most startling opinion poll turnarounds in this longest-ever race, last week a Reuters/Zogby poll had McCain holding a five-percentage point lead over Obama.

A month ago, Obama was riding a comfortable lead in most polls. But then the Republican attack machine — one of the best in the world — went to work. It’s not like any of this was unexpected. Republicans have always been better at attack politics and negative campaigning.

Some of this year’s crop of Republican attack ads have caste Obama as a flighty ‘celebrity’ along the lines of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears. Others have portrayed Obama as an indecisive flip-flopper.

And, in these troubled economic and national security times, other attack ads have depicted the Democratic standard bearer as weak and indecisive, and far less capable of keeping USA Inc safe from terrorist threats as the ‘tried and tested’ hands of Vietnam War hero John McCain. Of course all of this is politics in its most classic form. Forget the fact that McCain had repeatedly vowed to avoid negative campaigning.

That was before he found himself well behind in the polls. Attack ads work, and McCain is in this to win, not to be a principled runner-up.

Obama did get some good news last week when McCain stumbled badly when responding to a question about how many houses he owns. Although he couldn’t recall the exact number, it soon transpired that the Arizona senator and his wife own at least eight.

With the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage debacle leaving millions of Americans struggling to stave of foreclosure of their primary residences, McCain’s house gaffe was a welcomed boon for Obama.

But the Illinois senator is not without serious problems. For example, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released last week indicated that his bitter slugfest with Hillary Clinton has left many of her supporters fuming — particularly after he chose Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate without ever seriously vetting Clinton for the job.

According to the NBC/WSJ poll, only half of those who voted for Clinton in the primaries will support Obama in November. While it’s unlikely that those Clintonistas will actually vote for McCain, if they stay home and sit out the election, the effect could be just as devastating in swing states like Ohio, Indiana, Florida and Michigan

Having become the first African-American with a real shot at the White House, Obama has already made history. But whether he ends up as an iconic breakthrough figure or just an intriguing historical footnote is still very much up in the air.