SHOCK POLL: Pew +14 Obama - Likely Voters

DavidS

Anti-Tea Party Member
Sep 7, 2008
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Overview: Growing Doubts About McCain's Judgment, Age and Campaign Conduct

Growing Doubts About McCain's Judgment, Age and Campaign Conduct

Barack Obama’s lead over John McCain has steadily increased since mid-September, when the race was essentially even. Shortly after the first presidential debate on Sept. 26, Obama moved to a 49% to 42% lead; that margin inched up to 50% to 40% in a poll taken just after the second debate. Currently, Obama enjoys his widest margin yet over McCain among registered voters, at 52% to 38%. When the sample of voters is narrowed to those most likely to vote, Obama leads by 53% to 39%.

Obama’s strong showing in the current poll reflects greater confidence in the Democratic candidate personally. More voters see him as “well-qualified” and “down-to-earth” than did so a month ago. Obama also is inspiring more confidence on several key issues, including Iraq and terrorism, than he did before the debates. Most important, Obama now leads McCain as the candidate best able to improve economic conditions by a wider margin (53% to 32%).

Obama’s gains notwithstanding, a widespread loss of confidence in McCain appears to be the most significant factor in the race at this point. Many more voters express doubts about McCain’s judgment than about Obama’s: 41% see McCain as “having poor judgment,” while just 29% say that this trait describes Obama. Fewer voters also view McCain as inspiring than did so in mid-September (37% now, 43% then). By contrast, 71% of voters continue to think of Obama as inspiring.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Oct. 16-19 among 2,599 registered voters interviewed on landline phones and cell phones, finds that McCain’s age also has become more of an issue for voters. Roughly a third (34%) now says that McCain is too old to be president; in the Sept. 9-14 survey, just 23% said this. At this stage in the 1996 campaign, about as many voters (32%) said Republican candidate Bob Dole was too old to be president.

In addition, Sarah Palin appears to be a continuing – if not an increasing – drag on the GOP ticket. Currently, 49% of voters express an unfavorable opinion of Palin, while 44% have a favorable view. In mid-September, favorable opinions of Palin outnumbered negative ones by 54% to 32%. Women, especially women under age 50, have become increasingly critical of Palin: 60% now express an unfavorable view of Palin, up from 36% in mid-September. Notably, opinions of Palin have a greater impact on voting intentions than do opinions of Joe Biden, Obama’s running mate.

McCain may also be getting hurt by opinions of his campaign. A large majority of voters (64%) give McCain a grade of C or lower for his efforts to convince people to vote for him; only about a third (34%) gives McCain a grade of A or B for his campaign efforts. These grades are lower than those accorded to George Bush during his two successful campaigns and are nearly as low as the grades for Dole’s campaign in 1996 (29% A or B).

Obama, by contrast, receives the highest grades for a campaign dating to 1992. Nearly two-thirds of voters (65%) grade Obama’s efforts at convincing people to vote for him at A or B; about a third (32%) give Obama’s campaign a grade of C or lower.

A steadily growing number of voters say that McCain has been too personally critical of Obama: 56% say that now, up from 42% in mid-September. By contrast, just 26% say that Obama has been too personally critical of McCain, which is largely unchanged from mid-September (28%).

In recent weeks, McCain has lost support across the board. Most notably, he now trails Obama decidedly among political independents (51% to 33%). Yet he also has lost support among some voting blocs that previously had been strongly in his corner, including white evangelical Protestants and white men. McCain continues to lead Obama among older white men, but even here his margin over Obama has narrowed since mid-September; McCain now leads among white men age 50 and older by 54% to 38%, down from a 27-point lead in mid-September.

For all of Obama’s current success, however, there are some signs of vulnerability for his candidacy that could present opportunities for McCain. First, while somewhat more voters see Obama as well-qualified than did so in mid-September, only about half (53%) say this trait describes him; 72% say McCain is well-qualified. Second, swing voters continue to represent nearly a quarter of the electorate (23%). Notably, swing voters are less likely than all voters to say that McCain would continue Bush’s policies. They also express far more confidence in McCain than Obama to handle national security issues.

Voter interest in the campaign remains extraordinary: fully 81% continue to say that they have given a lot of thought to the presidential election, the highest ever measured at this stage in a campaign. The same percentages of Republican and Democratic voters say they are giving a lot of thought to the election (82% each). However, a lower percentage of Republicans say it “really matters who wins the 2008 presidential election” (71% vs. 80% of Democrats).

Republicans also are increasingly pessimistic about their party’s chances next month. While there has been an across-the-board increase in the proportion of voters predicting an Obama victory since mid-September, the shift among Republicans has been particularly pronounced. About as many Republican voters now see an Obama victory as say McCain will win (40% Obama, 35% McCain). In mid-September, 70% of Republicans said McCain would win compared with just 13% who said Obama was more likely to win.

The survey also finds that 31% of voters plan to vote before Election Day, or have already voted, compared with only 19% at this stage in 2004. Early voters lean heavily to Obama; 58% say they support Obama, compared with 34% for McCain.

Ouch. I know Pew, they have a good track record. They felt Bush would win 2004 by 2 and 2000 by 2 also. Even if they're off by 2 here, that would be a +16 for Obama.
 
Where's paperboy?

AMAZING how he isn't here yet again reporting on this.

Of course, he's probably going to find a poll out there that polls only Republicans and show how McCain has now taken a slim lead. Of course, the problem with that is that the poll only questioned REPUBLICANS.
 
AMAZING how he isn't here yet again reporting on this.

Of course, he's probably going to find a poll out there that polls only Republicans and show how McCain has now taken a slim lead. Of course, the problem with that is that the poll only questioned REPUBLICANS.

Make that Republicans that AREN'T endorsing Obama....
 
Yeah we all know about polls. I have heard that these polls (which they always do go democrat). In fact, one pundant says these polls are so out of wack by the enthusiasm of Obama supporters--ready & willing to answer any phone call, type in any text message--that the Obama campaign is starting to have some concerns.

If this race turns on Obama--which I think there is a good chance of, I will call it the "Caller I.D. effect". How many Americans are really not interested in talking to pollsters. I know I won't--"it's none of their business who or what I vote for." Nor will I answer phone calls--(caller I.D) if I don't know who they are.

We saw this in 04 with Kerry vs. Bush. All day long on election day--we heard that Kerry was the certain winner--because of the exit polling data. LOL--it's because Kerry voters were more than willing to run up to an exit pollster & tell them who they voted for. Upps--these pollsters forgot to count the 4 million people who refused to stand around an answer their stupid questions.

I believe this race is a lot closer than what we're to believe.
 
Guess what folks, we will find out who the winner is on November 4th! (well, more like the 5th I guess,,, then there's the recount,, and the voter fraud, and the,,,oh crap!)
 
Yeah we all know about polls. I have heard that these polls (which they always do go democrat). In fact, one pundant says these polls are so out of wack by the enthusiasm of Obama supporters--ready & willing to answer any phone call, type in any text message--that the Obama campaign is starting to have some concerns.

If this race turns on Obama--which I think there is a good chance of, I will call it the "Caller I.D. effect". How many Americans are really not interested in talking to pollsters. I know I won't--"it's none of their business who or what I vote for." Nor will I answer phone calls--(caller I.D) if I don't know who they are.

We saw this in 04 with Kerry vs. Bush. All day long on election day--we heard that Kerry was the certain winner--because of the exit polling data. LOL--it's because Kerry voters were more than willing to run up to an exit pollster & tell them who they voted for. Upps--these pollsters forgot to count the 4 million people who refused to stand around an answer their stupid questions.

I believe this race is a lot closer than what we're to believe.

Just trying to help- Pundit not Pundant. Unless you mean Pedant. I've been called a Pedant and a Pundit, but I don't think either apply.
 
Yeah we all know about polls. I have heard that these polls (which they always do go democrat).

Yeah, I'm sure you did hear that from Rush or Hannity.

Read it and weep, bro.

White House 2004

Look at the sea of red for the 2004 election.

Yeah, look at the Newsweek poll giving Bush a 6 point lead over Kerry not even a week before the election. The only polls that showed Kerry winning were FoxNews polls... (odd).

In fact, one pundant says these polls are so out of wack by the enthusiasm of Obama supporters--ready & willing to answer any phone call, type in any text message--that the Obama campaign is starting to have some concerns.

Of course they are. There were 500,000 Floridians who were registered Democrats who didn't vote in 2004. If they would have, Kerry would have won Florida and the election. BUT - Democrats are so excited right now, believe me, they're going to vote. Every single poll out there that talks to registered Republicans finds that only a fraction of them are very excited about their candidate while 86% of Democrats are excited by Obama.

If this race turns on Obama--which I think there is a good chance of,

You do?

Really?

What swing states do you think McCain will win? He's already conceding Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa and New Hampshire.
 
And Michigan and by proxy Wisconsin and Minnesota

The first mistake that anyone made was thinking that blue states would turn red in a souring economy and a looming recession. This year's political map will look very close to 2000's map. If Colorado turns red again this year, Virginia will be blue.

McCain has once again, put in all of his chips into Pennsylvania thinking that a state that only turned red in 1988 was because of the love and affection it had for Reagan and what an idiot Dukakus looked like. John McCain is no Ronald Reagan or George HW Bush and Obama is no Dukakus and there is ZERO chance of Pennsylvania turning red.

McCain spending time and money in blue states that had no chance to turn red has allowed Obama to turn red states blue.

I always said this election was going to be close to 2000's map and all McCain needed to do was make sure 2000 repeated itself with wins and not go for traditional blue states like Michigan and Wisconson. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
 
Michigan was ripe for picking, with the bitter dem primary and national committee / convention vote thing (stripping them of votes, Obama not on the primary ballot, etc etc) souring so many of the voters.
 
Michigan was ripe for picking, with the bitter dem primary and national committee / convention vote thing (stripping them of votes, Obama not on the primary ballot, etc etc) souring so many of the voters.

The DNC must make sure that in 2010 and 2012, that they accomodate states' wishes as to when they want to vote.

And I do agree that people from Michigan were angry, but when the stock market tanks 50% in two months, people's memory's become very short. McCain should've run some ads, spent a little money and tested the waters a little, but should've pulled out of Michigan a long time ago. It is unacceptable to many Republicans for a Democrat to be leading in double digits in a state that hasn't voted for a Democrat in 44 years.
 

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