McCain Erases Obama Lead in Pew National Poll

August 13, 2008 12:39 PM | | Comments (1)

Thanks to a solidifying GOP base and gains among white working class voters, John McCain has also but erased the lead Barack Obama has been holding in the Pew Research Center's polling. In a survey conducted July 31-Aug. 10 among registered voters, Obama now holds a bare 46 percent to 43 percent edge over McCain with the margin of error at 2 percent. Obama had led by 8 points in June, which was down to 5 points in July.

Compared to June, McCain made a gain of 5 points among Republicans pushing his level of support in the party up to 87 percent compared to 83 percent for Obama. He increased his margin over Obama among men by 5 points, among voters with a high school education or less by 7 points, voters earning between $50,000 and $74,999 by 8 points and those making under $30,000 by 6 points, and among white evangelicals by 7 points.

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Pew says McCain has also "made gains on his leadership image. An even greater percentage of voters than in June now see McCain as the candidate who would use the best judgment in a crisis, and an increasing percentage see him as the candidate who can get things done."

Other key points in the poll:

  • One finding that tempers some of the good news in this poll for campaign is that he continues to generate less enthusiasm than Obama among supporters. Twenty-seven percent of Obama backers support him strongly compared to 17 percent for McCain.
  • On swing voters, the poll found that 35 percent say they might support Obama but would not support McCain and 32 percent said they might support McCain, but not Obama. The number of leaners are about the same for each candidate.
  • Obama has not measurably increased his support among former Hillary Clinton backers since June, gaining only three points to 72 percent.
  • McCain's edge on the experience factor and confidence about his ability to handle a crisis is countered by Obama's large leads when the criteria are "has new ideas" and "connects well with people," and a more modest but still significant lead on "shares my values." Forty-nine percent call McCain a "typical politician" compared to 31 percent who describe Obama that way.

More from CQ Politics

Categories: Pew Research Center, Presidential

Tags: Obama McCain

    Comments

  1. Obama went from UP by 5 last month to UP by 3 and that is considered having your LEAD "erased". Totally misleading.

    If I wrote it Obama Loses 2% support in two months, McCain gains three, But Obama still holding slim lead. Now that makes more sense. What is the problem with your Headline writer. Erases means ERASE, not still leading. In fact in your first sentance you write "ALL BUT ERASED", which is it? Erased or ALL but erased.

    Sort of reminds me of your May Fundraising wing-ding where you wrote it was a "Good" month for McCain and "Not so good" month for OBAMA despite Obama outraising McCain. I count on you guys for informative articles. Get to work on better headlines. Because this one is ca-ca, and thats using your own objective article.

    Posted by: calraider Author Profile Page | August 13, 2008 3:46 PM

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