McCain picks up the pace in N.H.

A month ago, we compared John McCain's poll standing in New Hampshire to his poll numbers in other battleground states, to see whether the candidate is capitalizing on his long-term relationship with Granite State voters.

Earlier this summer, McCain was doing significantly worse here than nationwide. He stood at 43 percent nationally, but at just 37 percent in New Hampshire.

Since then, his national polling numbers have ticked up slightly to 44 percent, according to Pollster.com.

Last month, McCain ran ahead of his national numbers in Missouri (+ 2 percentage points), Nevada (+ 2), and Virginia (+ 1). A month later, he has maintained those advantages in Nevada (+ 1) and Virginia (+ 1), and now runs 4 points ahead of his national average in Missouri. (These state numbers also come from Pollster.com.)

McCain ran a point behind his national numbers in Colorado and Ohio, and still does today.

The biggest changes for McCain have been in those battleground states where he trailed his national numbers by four points or more last month. Most of these changes have been in McCain's favor, and the biggest change of all has been in, you guessed it, the Granite State:

Perhaps some of this movement is simply regression to the mean: No one seriously expected New Hampshire to vote six points less Republican than the nation, not after voting just two points less Republican in 2004. (Ditto Minnesota, which voted three points less Republican in the last presidential election.)

Right now, though, McCain is doing slightly better here than one would expect a "generic Republican" to do, given the Granite State's current Partisan Voting Index of - 0.5 percent.