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WORLD> America
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Poll: Obama takes a 7-point lead over McCain
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-02 08:55 As the two senators prepared to vote late Wednesday on the administration's $700 billion bailout plan, 16 percent of likely voters said they thought McCain hurt negotiations over the proposal when he bolted back to Washington last week to get involved. Just 5 percent thought Obama did damage when he returned after a summons by President Bush to attend a White House meeting on the crisis. McCain also lost ground among likely voters on experience, though he still leads on the issue, while Obama's marks ticked up slightly. And McCain slid a bit as voters measured which candidate "cares about people like me," while Obama gained. Adding to McCain's woes, just 25 percent of likely voters say Palin has the right experience to be president if needed, a huge drop from 41 percent in the previous poll last month. She posted an enormous loss in confidence among Republicans; three in four had called her experienced enough before, but not even half say that now. "If she was running the helm, she wouldn't know what she's doing," said Caitlyn Pardue, a Republican from Rohnert Park, Calif., who decided last week that she probably would vote for Obama after determining that Palin "doesn't have the breadth of knowledge." Pardue, 60, called McCain's selection of Palin "pretty ill-advised" and added: "It shows irresponsibility to me." In Port Orange, Fla., Jaimye Strickland just decided this week that she'll probably support McCain -- even though she's "hoping and praying" he doesn't end up following Bush's path. "I'm afraid of Obama," the Republican, age 56, said. "He doesn't have the experience that McCain does." She also said she worries that "he has some Muslim ties," even though she knows he's a Christian. Outwardly, McCain's campaign expresses optimism, and advisers say they expect the race to reset itself several more times. But privately some advisers acknowledge the difficult seas he is trying to navigate as the economy dominates the race. The Republican has previously agreed that the subject is not his forte, and historically the party in power loses elections during economic recessions. Seeking traction, McCain sought to change the story line as the week began by questioning Obama's character, particularly during a crisis. "A vote for Senator Obama will leave this country at risk," McCain said in a scathing speech. "We need a president who will always tell the American people the truth. ... Country first or Obama first?" Efforts also were under way Wednesday that suggested McCain and the Republican National Committee would start ramping up TV advertising -- and going on the air in more media markets -- to close the spending gap in Florida, Missouri and other key states. Industry officials say Obama is shelling out $13 million this week compared with $11 million by McCain and the RNC combined. Meanwhile, it appears Obama may be padding his edge in the Electoral College vote count in battleground states. Polls show he has started pulling away from McCain in pivotal vote-rich states that Democrat John Kerry won four years ago and that McCain has made targets this year, including Michigan and Pennsylvania. Surveys also show that Obama is a few percentage points or more ahead in Ohio and Florida, two critical states that Bush won four years ago and that McCain must retain to have any hope of winning the White House. Quinnipiac University surveys released Wednesday found that Obama's support jumped to 50 percent or more in three of those states: Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. Combined, they offer 68 of the 270 electoral votes needed for victory on Nov. 4. New CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corp. polls also showed Obama ahead in Nevada, Virginia, Minnesota and Florida, and tied in Missouri. At the same time, McCain and his Republicans find themselves in the undesirable position of having to defend traditionally GOP states they hadn't anticipated would be competitive. Obama successfully put Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina into play by pouring money and manpower into the states at levels until recently unmatched by Republicans. The AP-GfK poll involved telephone interviews of a nationwide sample of 1,160 adults, including 808 likely voters, from Saturday through Tuesday. Interviews were conducted on both landline and cell phones. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points, 3.4 percentage points for likely voters. |
