Posted on 08/20/2008 2:11:28 PM PDT by LdSentinal
The presidential race in New Hampshire is now a toss-up. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state finds that Barack Obama's once-double-digit lead over John McCain is down to a statistically insignificant one-point lead, 43% to 42%.
When leaners are factored in, Obama is ahead 47% to 46%. Full demographic crosstabs are available for Premium Members. Time is running out to save on Premium Memberships. Sign up now and save. Learn More.
The Democrats support has steadily decreased in the Granite State since he clinched the nomination in early June. Obama fell from an 11-percentage point lead in mid-June to a six-point lead in July. The latest numbers mark the closest the race has been so far this year.
The latest numbers show support growing for McCain from those in his party. He now earns the vote from 87% of GOP voters, up from 78% a month ago. Though Obama still has a 42% to 34% lead among unaffiliated voters, support for the Democrat is down from 50% last month. He also has a 46% to 38% lead among women. Among men in New Hampshire, McCain has a 46% to 40% edge.
While Obama has a solid lead among younger voters, the race is close among voters between the ages of 30 and 64. McCain has a dominant lead among voters age 65 and older.
Ahhh, thanks. Forgot about that. My bad. Let’s hope Obama crushes them downticket as well.
and this is a state hillary won
Gosh I wish Obambi would go to Berlin again.
Understand but I don’t think Rasmussen is in this evil plot. Also Battleground has both Dems and Repubs. It’s just we are used to always being way behind. Some polls may be false but surely they can’t all be.
Actually I don’t think this change in polls is from Saddleback, rather, I think Berlin. And in particular the middle finger to our troops.
I don’t know how ras is getting 273 for Obama: by Ras’s own polls, I have McCain at 274, unless he’s not counting VA.
RCP combine now has Obama at up 1.0%. Go to the chart, the headline still has it at 1.7%
I have developed my own list of seven states that I feel are crucial to McCains chances. I think McCain MUST win the first five and hell need to win at least one of the last two. Here the list:
Florida
Ohio
Virginia
Colorado
Missouri
Nevada
New Hampshire
1) I feel solid in predicting McCain victories in Florida and Missouri. McCain leads by 2-6 points in Florida in the last four polls. He has only spent on national advertising while Obama has spent $6 million in local TV adds. I have faith in the state GOP after they turned out over a million more votes for Bush in 2004 than in 2000 (3,964,522 to 2,912,790). They also showed their strength in Charlie Crist’s victory in the 2006 governor’s race. This was a bad year for the GOP and Crist still won by over 330,000 votes. Not quite Bush’s 380,000 vote victory in 2004 but still very solid nonetheless. Crist won Jacksonville, Tampa, and Orlando and he still got 45% in Miami. It’s tailor-made for McCain. Seniors, Cubans, and the large military population in the panhandle are the back-bone of McCain’s coalition and those groups show up on Election Day. Missouri looks like it’ll be McCain country. He leads by between 5-10 points in the last three polls. Bush won Missouri by a larger margin in 2004 (196,000 votes) than in 2000 (78,000), telling me that high turnout should help McCain.
2) Ohio is going to be very close. I’m in Cincinnati and McCain’s advertising presence has definitely stepped up. He’s been all over the Olympics and on local morning radio. His radio ad about Obama, taxes, and gas prices is brutally effective, IMO. He should run it nationwide. Rasmussen has McCain ahead and they’ve had him ahead since February. I worry about the turnout machine Obama is trying to build, although historically higher black turnout normally leads to higher white turnout. Obama also underperformed in the Ohio primary. He lost to Hillary in the southern and west central parts of the state. Primarily white, working class voters and McCain is going to steal a bunch of them.
3) These are very positive numbers in NH and I suspect Obama is vulnerable against McCain. His support was softer than I expected. Another factor to consider is Obama’s surprise loss against Hillary in the primary. This is the only state in my list that doesn’t have a large minority population of any sort. Almost all the undecideds broke for Hillary and only the Yuppies voted for Obama. Hillary won the working class and McCain can steal a large percentage of those votes.
4) It was good to see McCain surge ahead in Colorado’s last three polls after trailing for months. The same goes for Virginia after McCain had been trailing slightly in June and July. In the other western state in contention, Nevada, McCain leads narrowly, although I worry more about voter fraud in Las Vegas than any other place in the country, even Detroit and Philly.
5) Iowa and New Mexico I anticipate will go to Obama unless he completely falls apart. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania are outside possibilities for McCain, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Obama will make a push to flip Indiana and North Carolina, but I doubt hell pull it off. I’m not buying the polls showing Obama in contention in places like Alaska and North Dakota and Montana.
I can only assume this is sarcasm.
McCain doesn't have much margin for error. If he loses any of the first five, his odds of becoming POTUS are very slim.
The good news is that all of those states are very winnable if he continues running a strong, smart campaign. I'd rather be in McCain's position than Obambi's right now.
“I don’t think BHO would even think of giving the nod to Hillary and Bill.
If he did, would she accept it? Don’t you think the Clintons can sense that the ship is sinking? Do you really think she would go down with it?”
Just a few questions, for anyone who cares to respond?
1. Can the democratic delegates nominate a VP candidate on their own? (that is, independently and without the assent of the person they nominate for the presidential spot)
2. If they ARE able to do that, must the candidate they nominate for president accept their choice, even if it is someone he hasn’t chosen and doesn’t particularly want?
3. Folks, you can see where I’m going here.....
- John
See Rassmussenreports.com balance of power calculator.
McCain will have to hold on to all of Dubya's 2004 states including NV, OH, and VA and take one of CO., IA, or NM back to Red, or switch a Kerry state like MN 11(Pawlenty) or MI 17(Romney).
If he takes NV, OH, VA, and NH (4), but loses CO, IA, and NM it winds up a 269-269 tie.
I think that leads us dangerously close to a bad situation that will make 2000 look like a walk in the park.
Mac is in the same situation as Gore and Kerry faced. Gore invested all his energy into FL. Kerry moved to OH two weeks before the election day in 2004. Mac’s problem is that he has a few more states to worry about.
2. See 1 above.
So Obama does not have 273, but 267 as of now.
McCain may not have been my first choice, but there is no questioning his patriotism and he is proving to be very prescient on foreign policy (Georgia, the surge). I will gladly pull the lever for him.
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