There’s no Obama-Biden bounce according to the latest tracking polls. In fact, as of yesterday morning, Scott Rasmussen reports a 47-46 one-point lead for Senator McCain. Gallup has the race even, and indicates that conservative Democrats — including married women — are peeling away from Obama-Biden.

Has a McCain bounce occurred during the Democratic convention? It’s not out of the question.

Senator Clinton gave a strong speech Tuesday night, at one point invoking a powerful Reaganesque sense of American optimism and confidence. Good for her. But the early morning line yesterday didn’t show any bump for Mr. Obama, despite Mrs. Clinton’s endorsement. Her husband, meanwhile, has virtually endorsed Mr. McCain. And he indicated he’d be leaving town following his speech last night.

But there’s more to this Obama-Biden-bounce deficit than the Clinton cold shoulder. Another Gallup poll says 50% of Americans expect their taxes to be raised under Mr. Obama. And make no mistake about it: There are many doubts about the Illinois senator regarding his experience, his foreign policy, his economics, and his prior political and spiritual relationships. Despite some good moments Monday night, Mrs. Obama didn’t erase these doubts. In the end, only her husband can do it. And only Mr. Obama can unite the badly split Democrats at this late date.

President Reagan united a split Republican Party in 1980. President George W. Bush united the McCain, Forbes, and cultural-conservative factions in 2000. Senator Goldwater couldn’t do it in 1964. Nor could Vice President Humphrey in 1968, President Ford in 1976, or President Carter in 1980. But President Clinton succeeded in 1992, and now it’s Mr. Obama’s task in 2008. That’s his job. No one can do it for him.

While the stock market looked warily on the Democratic National Convention this week, a lead story in Wall Street Journal offered a serious indictment of Mr. Obama’s economic program. “Senator Obama,” wrote the authors, “is proposing to use the government to remake economic policies in a way that hasn’t been seen in Washington in decades.”

And if it’s a three-house Dem sweep in November, it will be Katy bar the door. Big-government spending programs, tax increases, trade restraints, a government health-care plan, cap-and-trade on climate change — all without any real deficit restraints, which are accorded a low priority by Team Obama.

Incidentally, while the public clamors for drill, drill, drill, Mr. Obama wants high-cost, cap-and-trade carbon regulation enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency. Now, Mr. McCain also wants cap-and-trade, but not if India and China don’t go along. Apparently Mr. Obama will not be constrained by the rest of the world.

Sure, the economy is languishing. But do we really want a big-government, high-tax solution? Do we really want higher investment taxes that would leave government bigger and private enterprise smaller? Do Americans really blame “rich” people? Or do they actually believe success is a good thing and should not be punished? Do rank-and-file working folks really want to do away with the secret ballot for unionization in the form of the so-called card check?

And if there is a three-house Dem sweep, won’t Mr. Obama’s middle-class tax credit be overturned in favor of even more government spending, just as Mr. Clinton’s plans were subverted back in 1993? The National Taxpayers Union says Mr. Obama’s new spending will total $344 billion. That’s a big number. One has to wonder if that’s the opening bid or the final one.

The Obama economists sincerely believe that theirs is a growth program. Mr. Obama’s advisors are friends of mine — all of them terribly smart: Jason Furman, Austan Goolsbee, Robert Reich, Jarrod Bernstein. But I question their economic model. Raising marginal tax rates will minimize — not maximize — economic growth and jobs. Ditto for enlarging the size, scope, and sweep of government.

Business cycles come and go. Each has its own set of excesses and subsequent corrections. It’s the nature of free-market capitalism. But heavy-handed government solutions are being rejected worldwide, and it seems foolhardy for America to move away from economic freedom while the rest of the world is moving toward it.

President Kennedy was one of the greatest tax reformers of all time. He slashed marginal tax rates for businesses and people of all incomes, and the economy boomed in the 1960s. President Reagan successfully emulated the JFK model in the 1980s and launched a 25-year boom. But are we turning back this supply-side model? I fear the Obama men are doing just that. And I think that fear is worrying the stock market.

Mr. McCain’s economic program is not flawless. And his advertisements bashing business and oil nearly reach the class-warfare level of Obama-Biden. It’s a Big Mac mistake. Mr. McCain also lacks a solid tax-cutting program for the middle class.

But the Denver Dems didn’t make the sale this week. Only Mr. Obama can do that — and he faces a monumental task tonight.

Mr. Kudlow is host of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Company.” © 2008 Creators Syndicate Inc.