Posted on 09/18/2008 6:39:05 AM PDT by VinceASA
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows Barack Obama gaining ground on John McCain for the third time in four days. The race for the White House is now tied with both candidates attracting 48% of the vote. Just a few days ago, McCain enjoyed a three-percentage point lead (see trends). Results are released every day at 9:30 a.m. Eastern and a FREE daily e-mail update is available.
The closeness of the race is confirmed by new state polling from Wisconsin and Oregon. While the ugliness of campaigns is always annoying to voters, just 23% believe that Election 2008 is more negative than most.
As the financial sector meltdown continues, consumer confidence has plummeted, falling 8% overnight. Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters now rate the economy as the top issue of Election 2008. That’s up from 41% this past Saturday morning. The number saying the country is heading in the right direction fell from 23% on Saturday to 18% now.
The financial crunch provides both opportunity and risk for the candidates. Voters are closely following the story but only one-in-four believe that either Obama or McCain is Very Likely to bring about the changes that are needed on Wall Street. Adding to the complexity for politicians everywhere is the fact that 49% worry that the federal government will do too much while just 36% are more worried that it won’t do enough.
(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...
Is the McCain softening the last few days due to a fading bounce or the financial markets issues?
The economy. The markets were poised to take off this morning before I left for the office.
Not a “dupe”. This post has analysis; the other doesn’t.
I’ll never understand how polls can change so quickly. Do millions of people really change their minds so fast, for no discernable reason?
It appears the Dow is up 100 or so already.
I think as long as the markets remain relatively stable, or at least don’t plummet too much, McCain should regain a couple points.
If not, I still think it’s winnable - too many people just don’t trust Obama and/or really like Palin.
I’d say yes, which is why I am not very optimistic.
Let's hope they really are closely following the story.
Twas Quotas that Killed the Economy. [Obama and his buddies]
Hong Kong made a pretty nice reversal last night -- from down 7.7% at the low but recovered and closed down only 0.03%. 7.4% stock market rallies are something you don't see every day.
He stopped hitting Obama with his own record, went back to his wishy-washy RINO act, and appears to be afraid of the financial problems so much that he is letting Obama blame the GOP without really defending himself.
I don’t know if this is by design or if they were totally thrown off by the bank situation.
The negative attacks by Obama on McCain about the economy are having some effect, and McCain has not been very good in his response.
Polls are based on a small statistical sample. It doesn’t take a lot of people changing their minds to affect the poll results.
And if McCain loses, it will be because of economic conditions.
I agree. I finally got notice that I’m to receive my yard sign/bumper sticker after two weeks’ delay, owing to demand. Unfortunately I’ve seen my share of O bumpers in Iowa and N.C.
The word needs to get out that McCain was worried about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac years ago. The president tried to encouraged oversight and it was blocked by the congress, most interestingly Dodd, Obama and a few others. They were the people getting very nice interest rates. I somehow doubt that the MSM is going to report this, unfortunately.
It has to be the economy/wall street issue. McCain needs to attack Obama on Fannie Mae to turn the issue around on Obama.
Still, the fact that despite the negative ads, the attempted destruction of Palin, and the Dow taking a nearly 800 point loss, Ras has it a tie is encouraging.
Adding to the complexity for politicians everywhere is the fact that 49% worry that the federal government will do too much while just 36% are more worried that it won’t do enough.............................. With the 9% Palosi/Reed in charge they can count on Congress doing nothing.
Agreed. For a while there, McCain’s campaign was just brilliant. They were hitting Obama in the gut every day. Now, they’ve backed off.
They also need to keep in mind that interesting result that Rasumussen found; that more people are worried about the government overreacting than underreacting.
People are not happy their investments are dropping.
McCain has an opportunity. Many people are now listening to the candidates because of the crisis. He has to contrast his record of reform, to Obama’s record of doing nothing. That is why they got a massive bounce at the convention. It is a time of crisis, and now is not the time for someone who has no experience and a extremely thin record.
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