Barack Obama has opened up significant leads in virtually every key battleground state, according to multiple polls released Wednesday. The size of the shift towards the Democratic nominee may indeed be historic.

"It is difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung so dramatically, so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign," says Peter Brown of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "In the last 20 days, Sen. Barack Obama has gone from seven points down to eight points up in Florida, while widening his leads to eight points in Ohio and 15 points in Pennsylvania."

The latest Quinnipiac polls show Obama crossing the 50 percent threshold in all three of those states:

Florida: 51 - 43


Ohio: 50 - 42

Pennsylvania: 54 - 39