Obama Takes Clear Lead in WashingtonPost/ABC Poll; National Average Shows a Tie

Posting at the Swamp (Chicago Tribune), Mark Silva reports the results of the latest WashingonPost/ABC poll:

“Fears of an economic slide have given Democrat Barack Obama a lift, with polls showing that voters trust Obama more than Republican rival John McCain to handle the economic crisis at hand.

“The newest gauge of this impact of a struggling economy on a close presidential contest is the survey reported today by ABC News and the Washington Post.

“It portrays Obama as gaining a 9-percentage-point advantage over McCain among likely voters surveyed nationally - the first time a pre-election poll by this consortium has found a Democrat drawing more than 50 percent of those surveyed. The margin: Obama 52 percent, McCain 43 percent.”

Keep in mind the latest daily tracking polls continue to show the race between Obama and McCain a dead heat with Gallup giving Obama a lead of +3 points and Rasmussen giving him a lead of +2 points. According to RealClearPolitics, Obama’s national average gives him a lead of only 3.2 points.

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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