Language: "Clinging to a small lead"
We cling to things that by their nature have a tendency to move beyond our grasp.
Clinging is, to me, something that we do in the face of force. We cling to a ledge, in opposition to gravity that would impose the natural trend (falling) were we not clinging. We cling to a child in a storm that is trying to pull her away.
If a candidate polls at 6 points up, then later at 2 points up, the statement that he is "clinging to a slim lead" is an implicit editorial statement of a prevailing tendency for him to lose that lead.
aka ongoing momentum for the other guy.
At the same time, headline writers do reasonably want a word that means "having a certain state or status, but less so than previously"
"Obama holds diminished lead in State X" would be best, but it lacks pizazz... which is part of the problem with news in general. It has to have pizazz, but the world is not always so dramatic.
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