There was a sudden wave of pessimism about this race in the blogosphere (and elsewhere) last week in the face of two bad polls (an 8-point deficit in a public poll from R2K via Daily Kos, and a 3-point deficit in a Dem-sponsored poll). Things seem to have turned on a dime in the Eighth District, though.
Coming right after yesterday's surprising DCCC poll giving Burner a five-point edge, here comes a second Dem poll from Lake (who found the 3-point deficit last time) showing Burner up by 7. I'd still like to see a poll from SurveyUSA of this race before I feel confident that it's tracking alongside other possibly-successful rematches (like NC-08 and IL-10), but this has to be a real confidence booster.
As I've stated elsewhere, this is a district dominated by Microsoft and Boeing, and isn't as directly impacted by chaos in the financial sector as a lot of other affluent suburban areas may be. However, Microserfs and Boeing employees still have 401(k)s, and I suspect they may have finally opened their statements last week.
Update: The full polling memo is available below the fold.