Obama's lead drops to five points in US race

[Murrican]

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/-/1068/484322/-/ryrxyw/-/

Obama's lead drops to five points in US race

By REUTERS

Posted Sunday, October 26 2008 at 19:52

Democrat Barack Obama’s lead over Republican rival John McCain has dropped to five points, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Sunday.

Mr Obama leads Mr McCain by 49 per cent to 44 per cent among likely US voters in the daily tracking poll, which has a margin of error of 2.9 points.

Mr Obama’s lead has dropped over the last three days after hitting a high of 12 points on Thursday.

“Things are trending back for McCain. His numbers are rising and Obama’s are dropping on a daily basis. There seems to be a direct correlation between this and McCain talking about the economy,” pollster John Zogby said.

Mr Obama, 47, took the lead in most national polls in recent weeks as the financial crisis and plunging stock market seized centre stage ahead of the November 4 election.

Financial message

Mr McCain, 72, appeared slow to respond to Mr Obama’s financial message but in recent days has ramped up the economic themes of his own campaign.

On Saturday the Arizona Republican warned voters of the dangers of what he termed a Democratic take-over in both the White House and Congress.

[Murrican]

The question I have about the polls, tightening or otherwise, is how much big-win states for either side over-states the electoral college results, and how large are the state-by-state samples and whether any of the "close" states have sample errors larger than 10%, which is actually too common, in too many past polls.

Another factor is the impact of unexpected news events in the last 10 days, such as today's apparent raid into Syria to take out al Quaeda targets. And what if -- it's still breaking news, I dunno -- one of those al Quaeda targets is target #1 who is not in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but hiding in Syria (or Iran, or wherever his millions can hide him, presuming he hasn't been hammered also by the stock market shrinkage...).

M -- an American exiled in Canada

[tiger_rascal]

I almost got in a fight with a co-worker today. Apparently the polls got a little tighter in WV and she asked me who I was voting for. I told her Obama, duh! And she said she was voting for McCain. Then she started to argue with me and I stopped her and told her I didnt want to hear it, she can vote for who she wants, Im voting for Obama. It doesnt help her arguements because everyone knows she has a racist side and she said she is only voting for McCain because Obama is black. I was officially disgusted with her.

[Murrican]

Tiger... Sorry, you say you're voting for Obama and then for McCain. You may want to edit that to fix the typo. I presume you meant Obama both times.

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Racism is the worst reason to vote in any direction, along with anti-semitism and sexism. But this may be one election where the anti-racists -- those voting for Obama to counter the racists -- may cancel out that negative portion of the vote.

I've talked to many friends who are voting for change for many reasons, and the kind of change they want is lately turning to economic implications far more than anything implied by skin color. Bush, Clinton and even Reagan and Carter are mentioned for their destructive effects and affects on the overall economic picture being distorted. But it seems to me that when McCain cautioned about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2005, it was partisanship that kept the ears from being open. Both parties to blame, in both halves of Congress -- each Party controlled one-half...

Bi-partisanship is what we need. Which Presidential candidate has that record? Hint: think 'Maverick'

M

[tiger_rascal]

Oops, I guess I was so worked up over the racist thing. I fixed it. :D