Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

So, what the hell is going on? Three or four polls yesterday are showing a cataclysmic shift of voter opinion in the direction of the Republicans. I have already reported on some of the other polls, but this morning I learned that yesterday's Pew poll showed the generic advantage for the Democrats shrinking from 50-39 two weeks ago to 47-43 now. Since the Democrats usually do lead in the generic ballot by 3 to 4 points, even when the race is dead even, this suggests the race is dead even. The algorithms that translate generic ballots to pickups in the House would forecast zero pickups for the Democrats based on this poll.

So, if this massive shift in the past few days is real, what in the hell is driving it? The news from Iraq is worse, not better. Saddam's verdict happened AFTER these polls were complete, so if it's going to have any impact, it will make things still worse. There was a (fake) down tick in the unemployment rate, but I don't think people look that closely at government stats. Was it Kerry? It makes no sense to me, but I'm growing very fearful that we are about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.