David Plouffe: Obama Campaign Has Momentum After Democratic Convention

President Barack Obama has momentum coming out of the well-received Democratic National Convention, one of his top advisers declared Friday.

"We come out of the convention with momentum," adviser David Plouffe told reporters, according to a pool report. "That doesn't mean the race is going to change significantly. But we think that we come out of here with some momentum in terms of putting together the electoral picture."

A number of analyses -- including The Huffington Post's own Electoral Outlook -- foresee a race that's relatively close in the likely popular vote, but nevertheless hands Obama a sizable electoral college victory.

"Our belief is we entered the convention with a small but important lead in most of those battleground states," Plouffe said. "We'll see where we are at the end of next week, let's say. But our suspicion is the race is going to be about where it was. And that's a problem for Mitt Romney."

Indeed, fresh polling from Gallup on Friday suggests Obama is getting a lift from the DNC. Romney saw no such boost after the Republican National Convention. Plouffe likely was cautious in his assessment because post-convention bounces tend to fade.

In his speech on Thursday night at the DNC, Obama focused on reminding his supporters -- who have been less enthusiastic than they were in 2008 -- that they need to match the energy on the right and get out the vote. Plouffe seems to think that mission was accomplished.

"We are not expecting huge movement in this race all the way out to the next 60 days ... but there is a chance we might have increased our turnout dynamics," he said.