McCain slips and slides toward defeat
This new PEW Poll tells quite a story. Palin’s negatives soar while McCain’s judgement is questioned. Judgement? Is that akin to character?
Let’s look at the numbers.
Obama’s Lead Widens: 52%-38%
Savor that for a minute. Okay, let’s move on to the economy.
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%).
Hmmm… how’s Obama doing on the judgement front?
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.
Oh my. But, hey, I’m sure Sarah Palin is helping…
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.
Forget Palin. Who needs her when you have Bill Ayers and ACORN!
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.
The McCain Campaign is in serious trouble. Their ground game is non-existent and if they’re counting on Wright to change these poll numbers they’re sadly mistaken. But enough about McCain – he’s so 2000! Enjoy the post. Consider it my little gift to you!
Tags: 2008 Presidential, Barack Obama, John McCain
Being repub = bad judgement. By definition.
I never thought anybody would rival either John Kerry or Michael Dukakis for poorly run campaigns: McCain is the new standard.
We are NOT counting chickens.
There’s two weeks of sleaze yet to come from McCain’s people, so who knows yet. And all of that sleaze is not about selling McCain, it is about denting all of the approval Pew documents for Obama.
But I do hope that this means that the very damaged repub brand has utterly undermined all of the usual sleaze and bamboozlement tactics. The 26 percenters will certainly hold on to their fears, but it is hopeful that folks seem inclined to competence rather than the usual fear and loathing.
Love the new Palin story. It is excellent news for Walnuts:
“Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.”
Not surprising. I had not ruled out voting for McCain until he chose Palin as his running mate.
Cass, One poll = one chicken!
Don’t worry. Went and made calls for Obama today! I’m still rowing! Okay, I’m savoring the moment too. 🙂
NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll just released. Obama 52, McCain 42
this is crazy! I don’t believef this poll! the media is saying it is closer!
BREAKING NEWS: NBC/WALL STREET JOURNAL POLL confirms the Pew poll.
Obama 52, McCain 42.
Keith Olberman is reporting that McSame is pulling out of Colorado (yay homestate) and Iowa and concentrating on PA.
I don’t think he has a shot in PA. None of this makes sense, and it hasn’t for a while.
pandora,
I think McCain has realized that he can’t win with the “win the Bush states” strategy because some Bush states (like Iowa) are out of reach. McCain is putting his eggs in taking PA, which means he can lose 2 of the smaller states. I think it just shows that McCain has a very difficult task to win the election.
I’m definitely not counting chickens yet. As the election gets closer I get more and more tense, just hoping that the status quo doesn’t change. It certainly makes me hypersensitive to perceived gaffes, drifts in polls and whatever campaign stunt McCain is pulling on that particular day.