USA Today: Bush surges in poll

USA Today | 10/17

[inquest]

"In a poll taken Thursday-Saturday, Bush received 52% support from likely voters, Kerry received 44% and independent Ralph Nader received 1%. Three percent of likely voters had no opinion."

Somehow I doubt that last sentence. What it sounds more like was that Bush, Kerry, and Nader were the only choices given, and that 3% of the respondents (or most of that 3%) preferred someone else.

[onyx]

Bush surges in poll.

Oh my goodness!

How many days til election?
I pray Bush's lead widens.

[Boundless]

> I'm from Taxachusett and the lawn sign score here is 50 -
> 50. I will consider it a moral victory if W get 45%.

It's important for every Bush supporter everywhere to
vote, even if they are in an unlikely or slam-dunk state.

The popular vote total matters from a PR perspective.

And given the current poll trends, incipient October
Surprises, and who-knows-what events, ANY state could
find itself in play.

[The Doctor]

Everyone should watch out for the DNC's "Emergency Plan." We may think they could not sink any lower, in terms of tactics, but just wait. They won't take this news in a horizontal position.

[LibWhacker]

Great! I wonder how many points Dubya will have to win by in order to get rats to give up on their secret "Plan," i.e., to tie up the election in the courts? I'm guessing we're going to need a fairly convincing landslide, and I think it may just be in the offing. It's gonna be sooooooooooo sweet!

[Wolfstar]

That's an awesome number at this stage of the campaign if true.

While there's no way to ever determine the truthfulness of a poll, this is the time of the year when polling firms have the greatest incentive to be as accurate as possible. They know that soon people will be measuring their last few polls leading up to the election against actual results.

[Wolfstar]

The popular vote total matters from a PR perspective.

I think — or at least hope — a lot more people understand that this year than they did four years ago.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

[VRWCTexan]

3% of the respondents - may also be in the "goofey" undecided group -

This 3% may not even vote, assuming they do a 2 to 1 split for kerry would still have "W" winning by a wide margin.

[tgiles]

I think Rove saved the "too liberal" charge for the last few weeks of the campaign so it wouldn't become trite.

Like "flip-flopper".

[gswilder]

I wonder if anyone has the historical Gallup poll results? It would be interesting to see if anyone has had an 8 point LV lead in their poll 16 days out and then lost. I doubt that has happened.

[NeonKnight]

Kerry will never give the old concession speech. Not in his bones. What an arrogant b%stard.

[jwpjr]

I am fearful of ANY news that appears to be good for President Bush!!!! They (MSM) have steadfastly refused to carry anything good for or helpful to him for the last four years. Why would they suddenly be touting his 'surge' in the poll. I have to ask myself what they could be up to! Maybe they want to goose the Dems to get out the vote. They could figure that if it appears Bush is surging that it would panic a lot of libs into making the effort to vote. Sorry, but I don't trust the bastards! Whatever it is, you can bet your bottom dollar it's not good for the President!

</paranoid mode>

[riri]

I was just thinking the same things. I think they are trying to sabotage us, lull us into complacency.

I don't trust 'em.

[big time major leaguer]

Somebody explain this to me ... we get several "national" polls every day, but they don't really matter. We do not elect the President by nationwide popular vote! Polls in "battleground states" would be much more significant, but they are slower than molasses. What's up with that?

[Dems_R_Losers]

Holy crap. I sure didn't expect this. That debate bounce sure disappeared in a hurry, didn't it?

I guess we'll see more ads from moveon.org this week bitching about the Gallup Poll. :^)

[VRWCTexan]

One could logically infer that the MSM not reporting on current "battleground states" polling is a result of kerry making a poor showing in the nine or so states still up for grabs!

[Politicalities]

Don't get too excited yet, folks. This is good news, mind you, but a poll that is far ahead of other recent polls merits skepticism until it's backed up by more data.

[tiki]

Okay, have I been asleep? What name?

[Humbug]

Your concern is understandable but i think at some point the media will write off this year (perhaps this is the beginning of it) as they start to see that Kerry probably won't win. They might even go so far as to jump on the Bush bandwagon and that way they can later say "see, we did have favorable coverage for the President and therefore we are well justified in saying that we are not biased and that you can trust us to be unbiased when it comes to covering that great Senator and possible first woman president (which of course is long overdue) from New York".