YES, VIRGINIA, THERE WAS A BUMP – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  The emotionally charged, way-over-the-top, smear-ridden Dem convention did produce a solid bump for the president.

Rasmussen this morning echoes the findings reported yesterday by Gallup:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows President Obama attracting support from 46% of voters nationwide, while Mitt Romney earns 44% of the vote. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

Check out our review of last week’s key polls to see “What They Told Us.”

In his syndicated newspaper column, Scott Rasmussen notes that the election is still all about the economy. Following yesterday’s disappointing jobs report, consumer confidence held steady this morning. However, it often takes up to a week before the full impact of a jobs report on confidence can be determined.

The president is enjoying a convention bounce that has been evident in the last two nights of tracking data. He led by two just before the Republican convention, so he has already erased the modest bounce Romney received from his party’s celebration in Tampa. Perhaps more significantly, Democratic interest in the campaign has soared. For the first time, those in the president’s party are following the campaign as closely as GOP voters.

COMMENT:  It is the enthusiasm that worries me.  The Obama campaign is running an old-fashioned, raw fear campaign, and fear campaigns, like negative ads, often work.  "They'll take something away from you that you already have, and that you deserve," is one of the most effective lines in politics.

The Dems are now back to the "war on women" theme.

And the Obama campaign made clear yesterday that the black vote is crucial to victory.  They will shame blacks, who have not benefited in any way from this president, to come to the polls for "our Barack."  And it may work.

Right now Obama is ahead by about two points.  We hope is bump fades.  If it does, though, the race will be about even, and we start over.

The president has the power of incumbency.  It was clear to me during the conventions that most of the mainstream media will be helping him, as it did in 2008.  For us, this will not be easy.

September 8,  2012