A new Washington Post poll shows that Democrat Creigh Deeds has pulled to within four percentage points of Republican Bob McDonnell in the Virginia gubernatorial race.

That's a huge difference from mid-August, when the split among likely voters was 15 points instead of four. Now Deeds only trails 51-47 in this poll.

Of course, in the last month, McDonnell has been criticized for a decades-old grad school thesis that slammed working women, unwed mothers, gays and no-fault divorce.

The Washington Post analysis of the poll largely credits "dramatic shifts among independent female voters and Northern Virginians" for Deeds having cut into McDonnell's lead.

The poll data is available here.