For anyone who recalls 2008, Obama’s poll numbers are shocking

Remember 2008?

Here’s the latest from Gallup:

President Obama finds himself in tight races with a handful of his Republican rivals, according to a new Gallup poll of registered voters released Monday.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads Obama, 48 percent to 46 percent, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry ties the president at 47 percent. The president holds a two-point lead over Texas Rep. Ron Paul and a four-point edge over Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.

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Bush and Obama: Uniters, Not Dividers??

Photo courtesy of state.gov.

On May 6, 1999, Salon published an article by David Horowitz featuring his interview of presidential candidate George W. Bush. Horowitz began by stating:

I like George Bush. He has a strong set of core convictions, including a significant religious faith, but he is also genuinely tolerant, open and warm-hearted toward people with whom he disagrees.

In the course of the interview Bush, former governor of Texas, declared:

...I showed the people of Texas that I'm a uniter, not a divider. I refuse to play the politics of putting people into groups and pitting one group against another.

Later on, Bush answers a question about his attitude toward minority groups, including homosexuals:

I think that each person ought to be judged by their heart and by their soul and by their contribution to society. Group-thought will balkanize our society, and I have rejected the politics of pitting one group of persons against another.

Now compare Bush’s remarks on bipartisanship to the words of candidate Barack Obama in 2008 as reported by the NPR’s Mara Liasson:

Obama has made this bridging of partisan divisions the touchstone of his campaign. "My goal is to get us out of this polarizing debate, where we're always trying to score cheap political points, and actually get things done," he has said.

Obama presents himself as a post-partisan political leader. In an interview on Fox News Sunday, he said that he just wants to do what works for the American people.

"Both at the state legislative level and at the federal legislative level, I have always been able to work together with Republicans to find compromise and to find common ground," he said.

A little over a year after President Bush took office, The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Derrick DePledge wrote:

WASHINGTON — President Bush promised to change the tone of politics and work as closely as possible with Democrats, but he has shown in his first few months in the White House that his commitment is to the conservative public policy agenda he outlined during his election campaign.

In Congress, the theory that leaders of the two political parties would have to find common ground because of the slim Republican majorities in the House and Senate has also largely crumbled, especially in the House, where conservatives have quickly moved to enact tax and regulatory proposals that would have withered under President Clinton.

The climate, for many lawmakers, is as partisan as ever.

And so it went throughout Bush’s eight years in office.

In April 2009, the Pew Research Center reported its startling poll numbers for President Obama:

For all of his hopes about bipartisanship, Barack Obama has the most polarized early job approval ratings of any president in the past four decades. The 61-point partisan gap in opinions about Obama's job performance is the result of a combination of high Democratic ratings for the president -- 88% job approval among Democrats -- and relatively low approval ratings among Republicans (27%).

And the trend continues; on the eve of his first anniversary as president, the latest polls show that although 83% of Democrats continue to approve of Obama, only 14% of Republicans do. One cannot avoid recalling that as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, Hillary Clinton was labeled by both the fringes on the left and the right as too polarizing to be president. The same poll cited above shows Secretary of State Clinton with a 75% job approval rating by supporters from both major parties and independents.

Barack Obama, the Nation’s Most Polarizing Modern President

David Paul Kuhn, Chief Political Correspondent for RealClearPolitics, highlights the latest poll numbers for President Obama who it seems is way past his honeymoon.

Here’s the bad news for 44 (emphasis mine):

This week Obama crossed the six-month mark with a public approval rating in the lower half of modern presidents, compared to the 11 presidents regularly polled by Gallup in the post-War World II era.

Obama's final approval rating after his first half year in office, based on a three-day average as of Tuesday, is 57 percent--ranking eighth of the 11 modern presidents.

In statistical terms, Obama is tied with George W. Bush (whom Obama technically falls a point above) and Richard Nixon (whom Obama technically falls a point below).

It's hard to believe, but according to Kuhn, the candidate who promised to transcend all those baby boomers’ issues and unite the country continues to be the most polarizing president of modern history.

Kuhn concludes:

Yet even the most remarkable fact of Obama's first 100 days, compared to past presidents, has eroded. The portion of Americans who thought that the nation was on the right track roughly doubled from Obama's first day to his 100th, from 22 to 42 percent respectively based on the RealClearPolitics average. But today, only 37 percent of Americans believe the country is on the right track.

This is not how Democrats imagined Obama's narrative six months ago.

High Stakes in Tonight’s Final Debate Between Obama and McCain

Obama and McCain face off at 9 p.m. Eastern at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York this Wednesday with a potential audience of 60 million or more.

John Whitesides at Reuters reports this morning:

“The debate comes as new opinion polls show Obama gaining strength nationally and in battleground states after weeks of economic turmoil and plunging stock markets, with more voters saying they trust Obama's leadership on the economy.

“A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll gave Obama a 4-point edge over McCain, but other national polls showed a larger margin for the Illinois senator. A CBS News/New York Times poll that showed Obama leading by 14 percentage points was the fifth survey this week to register Obama's lead in double-digits.

“The bad poll news heightened the debate stakes for McCain, who unveiled a package of measures on Tuesday to help investors, particularly older Americans, who have seen their retirement savings decimated by stock market losses.

“But McCain also said he was not finished talking about Obama's service on a community board in Chicago with former 1960s radical William Ayers. The Arizona senator said he was likely to talk about Ayers during the debate.”

Read more.

Pickup Basketball: McPalin Rattles Team Obama

It took a determined coalition of the Obama camp, under the cunning auspices of David Axelrod; Howard Dean, spearheading the charge for the DNC; and the good old boys network in the media, coughing up the required sexism and misogyny, to eke out a win for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. So there’s an element of poetic justice in today’s opinion piece in the LA Times by Jonah Goldberg that takes note of how Sarah Palin, the Republican Party’s first woman VP candidate, is helping John McCain rattle the Obama team.

Goldberg’s sports metaphor captures too well the American approach to a presidential election:

“Barack Obama, a famous fan of pickup basketball, must recognize his plight: It's two on one now. John McCain drafted Gov. Sarah Palin, the star point guard from the Wasilla Warriors, to double-team Obama.

‘“(McCain's team doesn't care if no one covers Joe Biden, who seems to spend most of his time yelling to the media, ‘I'm open! I'm open!’ But when he gets the ball, all he does is talk about what a great player he is and dribble in place.)

“So after the halftime show of the political conventions, to strain the sports metaphor a bit further, it looks as if the change-up in strategy has Team Obama rattled and in danger of choking. Polls -- the closest thing we have to a scoreboard -- show that McCain, at least temporarily, has taken the lead. The Real Clear Politics average of national polls since Friday shows McCain ahead by a razor-thin (and statistically meaningless) 2.9 percentage points. The USA Today-Gallup poll has McCain leading by a whopping 10 points among likely voters (and four points among registered voters), though that's almost surely an overstatement.

“The McCain-Palin convention bounce also all but closed the ticket's gender gap. According to Rasmussen, Obama had a 14-point lead among women; now it's three. According to the latest ABC/Washington Post poll, McCain now has a 12-point lead among white women.

“Still, there's a lot of pressure on Sarah Barracuda. Called up from the political minors, she could yet wilt under the hot lights. But that's looking less and less likely.

‘“The outrageous attacks on Palin out of the block (She banned books! She opposed family planning education! She's a creationist!) have missed the mark. And the eagerness of the mainstream media to go after her family life has backfired as well. For instance, the Washington Post's Hanna Rosin wrote sneeringly in Slate magazine of Palin's ‘wreck of a home life.’ Would Slate say that Obama, conceived out of wedlock to a teen mom, comes from a ‘wreck’ of a family? I somehow doubt it.

‘“Palin's more sober critics, mostly on the right, worried that picking her would undermine McCain's claim to ‘experience.’ Almost the exact opposite has happened. Thanks to the double-team strategy, Obama has found himself in the awkward position of sounding as if he's running against the GOP's vice presidential nominee. When Obama compared his own experience to Palin's tenure as mayor of Wasilla (leaving out her current job as governor), he ran right into the pick the McCain campaign had set, leaving McCain a clearer path to victory.

“The more Obama has to explain why being a community organizer -- or a state legislator, or a one-term senator with few accomplishments under his belt -- is better preparation for the presidency than being a mayor or governor, the more he volunteers his own shortcomings when compared with McCain.”

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USAToday/Gallup: McCain Takes the Lead

Only a few days ago, Obama supporters were boasting their candidate’s convention bounce was bigger than John McCain’s; they spoke too soon - the polls hadn’t yet registered the effects of the Republican convention.

Susan Page at USAToday reports:

‘“WASHINGTON — The Republican National Convention has given John McCain and his party a significant boost, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken over the weekend shows, as running mate Sarah Palin helps close an ‘enthusiasm gap’ that has dogged the GOP all year.

“McCain leads Democrat Barack Obama by 50%-46% among registered voters, the Republican's biggest advantage since January and a turnaround from the USA TODAY poll taken just before the convention opened in St. Paul. Then, he lagged by 7 percentage points.

“CONVENTION: GOP rejuvenated

“The convention bounce has helped not only McCain but also attitudes toward Republican congressional candidates and the GOP in general.

‘"The Republicans had a very successful convention and, at least initially, the selection of Sarah Palin has made a big difference,"’says political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. ‘He's in a far better position than his people imagined he would be in at this point.”’

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Zogby Poll: Sarah Palin May Stunt Obama’s Post-Convention Bounce

With only a couple of months to go before the big day on Nov. 4, the presidential race could be a dead heat until the final weekend. Zogby Interactive flash poll shows that “Republican John McCain's surprise announcement Friday of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate - some 16 hours after Democrat Barack Obama's historic speech accepting his party’s presidential nomination - has possibly stunted any Obama convention bump.”

“The latest nationwide survey, begun Friday afternoon after the McCain announcement of Palin as running mate and completed mid-afternoon today, shows McCain/Palin at 47%, compared to 45% support for Obama/Biden.

‘“After the McCain ‘Veep’ announcement on Friday, Palin was almost immediately hailed as a strong conservative, and those voters have rallied to the GOP ticket, the survey shows. Republicans gather in St. Paul, Minnesota this week to officially nominate McCain and Palin as their presidential ticket.

“Overall, 52% said the selection of Palin as the GOP vice presidential nominee helps the Republican ticket, compared to 29% who said it hurt. Another 10% said it made no difference, while 10% were unsure. Among independent voters, 52% said it helps, while 26% said it would hurt. Among women, 48% said it would help, while 29% said it would hurt the GOP ticket. Among Republicans, the choice was a big hit - as 87% said it would help, and just 3% said it would hurt.”


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Biden Pick Not Helping Obama’s Poll Numbers; McCain Takes the Lead

Gallup Daily reports:

“PRINCETON, NJ -- It's official: Barack Obama has received no bounce in voter support out of his selection of Sen. Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate.

“Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Aug. 23-25, the first three-day period falling entirely after Obama's Saturday morning vice presidential announcement, shows 46% of national registered voters backing John McCain and 44% supporting Obama, not appreciably different from the previous week's standing for both candidates. This is the first time since Obama clinched the nomination in early June, though, that McCain has held any kind of advantage over Obama in Gallup Poll Daily tracking.”

Embarrassing Poll Numbers for Democrats on the Way to Denver

Get this: the RealClearPolitics average of the latest national polls shows Obama’s lead over McCain has shrunk to 1.5. The race between the two presumptive nominees is clearly a dead heat.

As I posted earlier, the latest WashingtonPost/ABC poll indicates that Obama’s choice of Biden as his running mate doesn’t help his case with the American people.

All of this has got to be hard to take for those on the extreme left and their media allies who satisfied their sadistic, misogynist natures by trashing Hillary Clinton throughout the Democratic primary and continue to do so at every opportunity.

Well, maybe after the Democrats oversee their illegitimate roll call vote pre-planned for next week, they’ll be able to recover some of their losses, but don’t bet on it.

Democrats in Trouble as Convention Approaches

The Democratic convention starts next Monday, Aug. 25, 2008, and it’s been a long time coming since Obama anointed himself as the presumptive nominee on June 3rd, and Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign four days later.

In the meantime, Obama of the soaring speeches read in oratorical grandiosity to thousands of eager, mostly youthful fans has flip-flopped his way ungracefully to the center on most issues and floundered lately in his exchanges with John McCain, his Republican adversary.

Not surprisingly, the One’s poll numbers have been sinking lately and as we might expect, the media is offering Obama all kinds of helpful advice. Take a look at these examples from the list of articles indexed at RealClearPolitics this morning:

Obama: In Need of a Game Changer - David Gergen, CNN
It's Up to Obama to Erase the Doubt - Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe
Where's Obama's Passion? - Joe Klein, Time
Obama's Not Over the Hill(ary) Yet - Margery Eagan, Boston Herald
Daley Says Shhh, Library Quiet on Obama - John Kass, Chicago Tribune
Obama Needs a Narrative - Steven Stark, Boston Phoenix
Woe Is Me, Said the Democrat - Debra Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle

Since it was the latest Reuters/Zogby that reported McCain now leads Obama by five points, it’s appropriate that John Zogby, over at the Huffington Post, is asking: Do Obama's Sinking Poll Numbers -- Signal History Repeating for Democrats?

If the media can be taken seriously – doubtful after their performance during the Democratic primary – Democrats are in trouble in a year when the presidential contest was theirs to lose. But they have only themselves to blame; after all, they went along with their media allies who repeatedly trashed Hillary Clinton, the immensely better qualified candidate, while succumbing to the allure of a talented motivational speaker. Obama demonstrated once again last Saturday night at Saddleback that he is completely at a loss without a teleprompter.

The good news is that it’s not too late. All Democrats have to do is abide by their own rules and hold a legitimate roll call vote next week and elect Hillary Clinton as their official nominee.

Should Pollsters Include Hillary Clinton in Pre-Convention Surveys?

Hillary Clinton’s supporters have reportedly been emailing pollsters to suggest that since Obama has been faring so poorly in recent match ups with John McCain they should consider matching Clinton with the Republican presumptive nominee, as she just might prove to be the stronger candidate in the final days leading up to the Democratic convention.

The persistent Clintonites argue that since neither Obama nor Clinton has the minimum required delegate numbers, there is currently still no certified nominee, and it’s therefore not too late for the party to change its mind.

The just released Pew Poll confirms a major slip in Obama’s numbers compared to McCain’s. As reported by Brian Faler at Bloomberg:

“The U.S. presidential race is a tossup as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has lost what was once an eight-point lead over Republican rival John McCain, according to a new poll.

“The Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press said today that Obama now leads McCain 46 percent to 43 percent among registered voters, down from June when the Illinois senator enjoyed a 48 to 40 advantage. His lead narrowed to five points in July, the survey said.

“The nonpartisan group attributed the shift to McCain's progress winning over core Republican voters, including white evangelical Protestants along with white working class voters. By contrast, the poll said, Obama has made ``little progress'' expanding his support among Democrats over the past two months.

‘“Obama has made ‘no significant headway’ among Hillary Clinton's former supporters, with 72 percent of them saying they now back Obama. That's unchanged from last month and 3 percentage points higher than in June, Pew said.”’

Read more.

Catch Up Time at Home in St. Paul

I made it back to Minnesota yesterday around noon after attending my family reunion in northwestern Ohio and spending several pleasant days at the country home of my niece and her husband. We rose at 4:00 a.m. yesterday to make my early morning flight to Chicago and then on to Minneapolis-St. Paul - I was pretty drowsy by the time I got home.

I didn’t spend too much time on my vacation following news reports of Obama’s trip. Interesting to note that despite all of the adulation Obama received from the media, RCP’s latest national average shows the rock star candidate with only a 4.2 lead over McCain.

For those of you who have been following the Denver Group’s efforts to keep the Democratic primary democratic this August, Heidi Li’s Potpourri this morning provides the essential convention rules going forward:

“The Call to the Convention serves as a blueprint or governance document specifying how the convention will be convened and what will happen there. The first parts deal with how people other than superdelegates (or as they are officially called "automatic delegates) can qualify to become delegates to the National Convention. The later sections specify how the Convention is to operate.”

Read more here.

Today’s Must-Reads at Guerillawomen

Katalusis readers owe it to themselves to check out today’s edition of Guerillawomen for news of a crowd erupting in applause at Obama’s mention of Hillary Clinton; definition of Obamania; superdelegates switching over to Clinton prior to Denver; a word about the latest polls, Rasmussen Finds Hillary Would Do Better Against McCain:Obama currently leads McCain 47% to 45%, according to Rasmussen, but Hillary beats McCain by 8 points!
and more.

Registered Dems Still Prefer Clinton

Photo credits: Susan Walsh/AP



After just reading an insipid AP article claiming that Hillary Clinton, once a Democratic Party insider, is now on the outside looking in, it’s a real pepper upper for her supporters to learn that polls released today show registered Democrats still prefer Clinton to the presumptuous nominee, Barack Obama.

Daniel Nichanian at the Huffington Post reports:

“A lot of presidential polls to digest today, as SUSA, Rasmussen and two other polling groups released new match-ups for a total of 8 states with some surprises and some expected results. The most interesting come from the pair of Southern states that the Obama campaign believes it can put in play:


“In North Carolina, SUSA finds surprising results: Hillary Clinton is leading McCain 49% to 43%, while Obama is trailing 51% to 43%. As usual, Clinton's advantage is derived from women (she leads McCain by 19% while Obama trails by 1%) and by registered Democrat, among whom her lead is 20% superior to Obama's.

“In Virginia, a VCU Commonwealth poll shows that McCain is leading both Democrats, 44% to 36% against Obama and 47% to 38% against Clinton. One puzzling internal is that Obama only gets a 41% to 36% in Northern Virginia, a region he will have to win by a much bigger margin to make the state competitive.”


Nichanian continues with more analysis of today's polls.


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Clinton Gaining in Oregon; Another Blowout Win Expected in Kentucky

Photo credits: socialitereport.com/photos/kentucky

Ignore those dramatic photos spread across the Web this morning showing the huge crowd Obama drew in Portland yesterday.

It’s the day before the Oregon and Kentucky primaries, and the latest polls show Clinton closing the gap with Obama in Oregon where he no longer holds a double-digit lead, and she's headed for another blowout victory in Kentucky.

As reported by Political Intelligence (Boston Globe), “Obama leads 45 percent to 41 percent with 8 percent undecided and 6 percent refusing a response, according to a Suffolk University survey released this morning. An American Research Group survey puts Obama's lead at 50 percent to 45 percent.”

Political Intel reports that “Clinton continues to lead handily in every poll in Kentucky, which also votes Tuesday. In a Suffolk survey released today, she leads Obama 51 percent to 25 percent, followed by John Edwards with 6 percent, "uncommitted" with 5 percent, while 11 percent were undecided.”

“But,” Political Intel continues, “she {Clinton} isn't taking any chances and hopes to win big enough to cut into Obama's lead in the total popular vote, campaigning all day in the Bluegrass State. She plans her primary night rally in Louisville.”

Go, Hillary!

P.S.

Obama's rumored victory lap on Tuesday night in Iowa has apparently been cancelled although he's still planning to hold a rally there. Something must have deflated his hubris - at least temporarily.

Clinton Campaign Undaunted by Obama’s Scary Display of Hubris

After grandstanding for the press earlier this week by jumping to the questionable conclusion that President Bush had singled him out as an “appeaser” in his speech to Israel’s Knesset, Barack Obama has subsequently displayed even further evidence of a smug and scary hubris. He’s planning to celebrate his crowning as the Democratic nominee with a rally in Iowa Tuesday night, even though the Rules Committee won’t resolve the Michigan and Florida issue until May 31, and the latest polls show the race between him and Sen. Hillary Clinton is still close.

According to RealClearPolitics, the national poll average this morning shows Obama leading Clinton by only 6.8 points, just barely exceeding the margin for error. In the upcoming primaries, Obama leads in Oregon by an average of 14.3 points while Clinton leads in Kentucky by a whopping 28.8 points.

It will be interesting to see Obama taking bows onstage Tuesday night in Iowa as his adoring flock chants “Yes, we can” when word reaches the anointed one that Clinton has replicated her win in West Virginia by mopping the floor with him in Kentucky.

Clinton Supporters Count Too pointed out the other day:

“THIS IS NOT OVER…DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU IT IS AND DON'T LET YOURSELF THINK IT IS. IT IS NOT OVER. This is only one part of the Road to the White House and the candidates are statistically neck to neck. The next step is the Resolution of FL and MI and we will demonstrate in Washington on May 31st when the Rules Committee meets. Save the date. …more later. Each time we enter a new phase we will determine the most effective strategy and communicate it to you. Your part is to help make it happen throughout OH, MI, PA and FL, the critical states where we have the advantage.”

Plus, WomenCount has reported dramatic success in fundraising:

WomenCount, a new PAC formed to fund full-page ads to run this week for Hillary Clinton has received more than $170,000 in 48 hours from women all around the country. The PAC will fund ads in USA Today, the NY Times, and some regional newspapers.

You can view the ad over at TaylorMarsh.

"WomenCount PAC was created to ensure that the 51 percent of American citizens who are women have their values and votes counted in the political process.”

Obama Camp Ignores Latest Polls to Project May 20 Victory

Photo credits: AP



The sky’s the limit for arrogance in the Obama Camp; the press has received word that Obama will declare victory on May 20.

I’d suggest that Axelrod, et al, take a closer look at RCP’s latest poll averages:

Clinton leads Obama by 43 points in West Virginia, and she’s ahead by 34 in Kentucky.


Despite the media’s shameful attempt to force Clinton from the race this week, the contest is a dead heat in the national polls with Obama leading Clinton among Democrats by a paltry 2.1 percentage points.



Big margins in the upcoming primaries could give Clinton the lead in the popular vote, so a word to the wise to Obamaphiles: curb your arrogance until the Democratic Party - not your advisors - has declared its 2008 nominee.

May 5 polls: Clinton Leads in IN; Obama Ahead in NC

INDIANA PRIMARY

SurveyUSA:
Hillary Clinton: 54%
Barack Obama: 42%
Undecided: 1%


American Research Group:
Hillary Clinton: 53%
Barack Obama: 45%

Suffolk University:
Hillary Clinton: 49%
Barack Obama: 43%
Undecided: 6%

Zogby:
Barack Obama: 44%
Hillary Clinton: 42%
Undecideds: 15%

NORTH CAROLINA

Insider Advantage
Hillary Clinton 45%
Barack Obama 48%

Zogby Tracking
Hillary Clinton 40%
Barack Obama 48%

PPD
Hillary Clinton 43%
Barack Obama 53%

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION

Gallup Tracking
Hillary Clinton 45%
Barack Obama 50%

USA Today/Gallup
Hillary Clinton 51%
Barack Obama 44%

CBS News/NY Times
Hillary Clinton 38%
Barack Obama 50%

Rasmussen Tracking
Hillary Clinton 45%
Barack Obama 46%

Despite Pro-Obama Media Bias, Polls Show Clinton Surge

Photo credits: AP

As I mentioned in my coverage of the Pennsylvania primary, no one should have been surprised that most of the state’s newspapers endorsed Obama; we’ve all been well aware of the media’s pro-Obama bias for months. Fortunately for Sen. Clinton, working class people in the Keystone state outnumbered the press, helping her trounce Obama.

Evidently, not much has changed the weekend before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries: the headline for campaign news at PoliticalBulletin (U.S.News.com) reads: “Obama Wins The Media While Clinton Moves Up In The Polls.”

Here’s the PoliticalBulletin’s take on current trends in campaign coverage:

“There is an odd dichotomy emerging in the media coverage of the Democratic presidential race emerging this morning. On one hand, the media is seeing former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrew's defection to Barack Obama's camp as a sign that superdelegates are beginning to move towards his candidacy, and give the move extensive coverage. On the other, there are a number of items of good news for Hillary Clinton polls showing her in a dead heat in Indiana and one showing her competitive in North Carolina, which was expected to be an Obama stronghold. In addition, she picked up the endorsement of the Indianapolis Star, and a group of swing state polls show her far stronger in the general election in key states than Obama.”

Pennsylvania Win Propels Clinton in Latest Polls

Posting at Political Intelligence (Boston Globe), Foon Rhee suggests the latest polls hint at a Clinton surge:

“A bevy of new national polls, plus surveys in Indiana and North Carolina -- which hold key primaries on Tuesday -- suggest that Hillary Clinton is closing the gap since her campaign-saving victory in Pennsylvania last week, and that the controversies dogging Barack Obama are having an impact.”

After analyzing results from Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, New York Times/CBS poll, and Quinnipiac University poll, Rhee comments:

“The polls were being conducted as Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., was making a series of highly publicized speeches and as Obama repudiated him."



Rhee adds:

“In North Carolina, a new WRAL-TV poll says that Obama's lead has narrowed to 49 percent to 42 percent, down from double digits in most prior polling.

“In Indiana, where the race had been a toss-up in surveys last week, Clinton now leads in the three most recent polls. She is ahead 46 percent to 41 percent in a Rasmussen survey, 50 percent to 42 percent in Public Polling Policy survey, and 52 percent to 43 percent in a SurveyUSA poll.”