Barack Obama leads John McCain 52 percent to 42 percent among registered voters with 2 percent saying "neither" and 3 percent undecided in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted Oct. 17-20. The margin of error is 2.9 percent. The figure includes voters who are leaners to one or the other. Obama's lead the last time this poll was conducted in early October was 5 points. When Ralph Nader and Libertarian Bob Barr are factored in, Obama leads 50 percent to 39 percent with 2 percent for Barr and 3 percent for Nader.
Other major polls from this week:
Pew Research Center: Obama 52, McCain 38
New York Times/CBS News: Obama 54, McCain 43
Fifty-two percent of voters in the Pew Survey said they were excited about backing Obama compared to 26 percent of McCain supporters who felt that way. Thirty-nine percent of McCain supporters said they would vote for him because he was the lesser of two evils. In another stark contrast, 46 percent of McCain supporters said their vote was more for McCain than against Obama while 67 percent of Obama supporters said their support was more for their candidate than against McCain. Twenty-seven percent of McCain supporters said they were motivated mainly by rejecting Obama while only 8 percent of Obama supporters said they had made their choice principally because of opposition to McCain.
Some toplines from the Pew poll:
Fifty-one percent of voters said Obama was very or fairly likely to bring real change to the country compared to 25 percent for McCain.
Voters said by 50 percent to 48 percent that they had a great deal or quite a bit of faith in McCain as commander-in-chief while 51 percent they had just some or very little faith in Obama in that role compared to 48 percent who said they had faith in him doing that job.
Voters also favored McCain as the candidate who had the experience to be an effective president, with 60 percent saying they believed that a great deal or quite a bit compared to 39 percent who said they believed that "just some" or very little. Fifty-five percent did not believe Obama had the experience compared to 44 percent who said they did.
Fifty-three percent said they had seen, read or heard something about McCain and his campaign in the last couple of weeks to make them think less favorably of him, while 48 percent said they had seen, read or heard something about Obama that made him come across more favorably.
On the issues:
Health care: Obama 59, McCain 20.
Improving the economy: Obama 49, McCain 28.
Taxes: Obama 48, McCain 34.
The mortgage and housing crisis: Obama 45, McCain 24.
Dealing with the Wall Street financial crisis: Obama 42, McCain 25.
Energy and the cost of gasoline: Obama 44, McCain 32.
Making appointments to the Supreme Court: Obama 41, McCain 35.
Iraq: McCain 45, Obama 41.
Catching Osama bin Laden: McCain 39, Obama 19, neither 23.
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