O’Donnell makes up ground

A new Rasmussen poll has Christine O’Donnell trailing Chris Coons by a 51-40 margin. This represents a significant improvement over polls that, prior to the O’Donnell-Coons debates, had O’Donnell behind by 16 to 21 points. However, Rasmussen’s previous poll, taken three weeks ago, showed O’Donnell behind by 9 points.
The apparent improvement in O’Donnell’s position from a week or so ago probably stems from this week’s debates. O’Donnell was clearly superior to Coons in the first debate, I thought.
Being 11 points down this close to election day certainly isn’t where a candidate wants to be. But perhaps now there is at least some realistic hope of an O’Donnell victory.
Delaware results will, I imagine, be among the early ones to be reported on election night. If O’Donnell is even close to Coons, it could signal a huge night for Republicans. If O’Donnell isn’t close, the result probably doesn’t have implictions beyond Delaware, since she is (or is considered to be) such an atypical candidate.