Obama shows surge in key battlegrounds, series of new polls says
- |
Democrat Barack Obama is surging in key battleground states, according to a series of new polls released yesterday.
Obama's gain is particularly pronounced in Pennsylvania, where he led Republican John McCain by 49 percent to 43 percent before Friday's first presidential debate, but leads by 54 percent to 39 percent in a new Quinnipiac University survey.
In Florida, Obama's edge grew by two percentage points from before the debate to 51 percent to 43 percent, and in Ohio by one percentage point to 50 percent to 42 percent, said Quinnipiac, noting Obama was boosted by his debate performance and voter confidence in his capacity to fix the worsening economy. Obama trailed in all three states in Quinnipiac polls released Sept. 11.
"It is difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung so dramatically, so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign," Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement. "Sen. John McCain has his work cut out for him if he is to win the presidency and there does not appear to be a role model for such a comeback in the last half century."
Also, CNN/Opinion Research Corp. surveys showed Obama taking the lead in Missouri and Virginia and gaining ground in Florida, Minnesota, and Nevada.
The polls found Obama leading McCain 54 percent to 43 percent in Florida among registered voters, up from a tie at 48 percent two weeks ago; also ahead 54 percent to 43 percent in Minnesota, up from 53 percent to 41 percent a month ago; up 50 percent to 45 percent in Missouri, flipping McCain's edge three weeks ago; leading 54 percent to 43 percent in Nevada, up from 49 percent to 44 percent last month; and ahead 54 percent to 42 percent in Virginia, reversing McCain's lead three weeks ago of 50 percent to 46 percent.
FOON RHEE
"He's got a better philosophy, he's got better answers," Clinton told voters at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
"He's got a better vice presidential partner," Clinton added, arguing that because Obama will need to focus on fixing the economy, the role of the vice president in foreign policy will be even more important.
Clinton said nobody in Washington understands the opportunities and challenges in the world more than Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee.
Clinton and Obama had an on-again, off-again relationship during the Democratic primaries as he aggressively advocated for his wife, Hillary Clinton. But since she endorsed Obama in June, the former president has talked up Obama, particularly during the Democratic National Convention in August.
FOON RHEE
"The more voters learn about Sarah Palin, the less there is to like," the announcer says in the opening of a Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund television spot that accuses Palin, as Alaska's governor, of promoting aerial hunting of wolves.
"Do we really want a vice president who champions such savagery?" the announcer asks.
Factcheck.org, an independent group, says that while it's true that Palin endorsed the policy, state officials call it "predator control" and use it to control the sizable population of wolves and keep them from killing moose and caribou, which some hunters rely on for food.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund, meanwhile, began airing an ad that criticizes Palin for a policy while she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, to require victims or their insurers to reimburse the $500 to $1,200 cost of rape investigation kits and examinations.
"That is something to me that is unthinkable," a woman only identified as "Gretchen" says in the ad.
Politfact, another independent fact-checking organization, says that while Wasilla had such a policy while Palin was the mayor, there's no evidence that she explicitly endorsed it.
FOON RHEE
