McCain takes lead over Obama:
Wed Aug 20, 8:25 AM ET



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a sharp turnaround, Republican John McCain has opened a 5-point lead on Democrat Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential race and is seen as a stronger manager of the economy, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

McCain leads Obama among likely U.S. voters by 46 percent to 41 percent, wiping out Obama's solid 7-point advantage in July and taking his first lead in the monthly Reuters/Zogby poll. LINK

In past elections, Democrats have need a huge lead to win the presidency. Kerry lost a 20 point lead and the Presidency, as did Dukakis. This probably spells disaster for Obama.

If I had to guess, I'd say it due to McCain's " Drill here drill now " energy policy. More and more Americans are favoring his energy policy over Obamas.

But. Obama's tire gauge energy plan is the bestest!

It's a good one alright. You would not believe all of the vehicles driving around here with totally flat tires. I said " Come 'on People. If you'd put air in them things it would solve our energy problems. "

( But I still won't vote for John McKeating either. )

I'll vote for McKeating you vote for Jimmy"Obama" Carter.

Another flip flop from Obama who states we should drill here. This guy cant keep his word on nothing except for abortion. Im glad McCain is ahead I hope he wins.

What ? Me vote for Barack Hussein ? Not on your life. You could string me upside down by my toes and I wouldn't vote for that man.

I'm a faithful Ron Paul supporter. Small government, Less taxes, and more civil liberties.

Still too early really and things can turn around just like that.
But what I'm wondering about is, if this poll is making the Libs nervous and are now considering nominating Hillary instead of Obama in the coming Democrat Convention?
Won't that be the biggest surpirse of the decade?

No. I predicted this after Super Tuesday. My theory was that Obama would pull out the nomination but Hillary Clinton would become president. However I was inaccurate about the republicans by predicting Mitt Romney.

I think there are a tremendous amount of voters that are indecided at the moment. Once the VPs are selected, many of them will make their minds up.
VOte Ron Paul and forget the Big Oil, Big Interests, and Big Military candidates.

The discredited and inaccurate Zogby poll? Nothing to see here, move along. Obama is still crushing McCain.

Gallup Daily: Obama Up 45% to 43%

Crushed! Or not..........

I don't see how polls are news. Wait until election day, then we'll see who was actually ahead.

I agree. Polls are totally meaningless no matter who's ahead.

A few weeks back you guys were saying poll are usless (when obama was ahead) suddenly mccain's surge deserves a thread?

Obama will pull miles ahead after the debate's Mccain's only a interim president at best

and remember ..... like cons are quick to point out usually .......... Bush was far behind Kerry around this time .

Why are you citing two Democratic failures with early on high poll leads as an example of why Democrats need them? Clinton was behind both Ross Perot and George H.W. Bush before his convention in the 1992 race.

and yet ..............

2 polls show Obama's lead over McCain cut to 3 points
Bloomberg News
Aug. 20, 2008, 10:38PM

Barack Obama's lead over rival John McCain has shrunk to 3 points as Democrats prepare for their presidential nominating convention next week in Denver, according to two new polls.

Democrat Obama leads Republican McCain 45 percent to 42 percent, according to polls released Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal/NBC News and the New York Times/CBS.

Both results are within each poll's margin of error, leaving the two men statistically even.

Both the polls reported that McCain had cut Obama's lead in half from 6 points compared with their last surveys. The polls also found that McCain's popularity improved after he began running negative ads that compared Obama to Hollywood celebrities.

Illinois Sen. Obama was viewed as stronger on the economy while Arizona Sen. McCain was seen as a more effective commander in chief, the polls found.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points and was conducted among 1,075 voters from Aug. 15 to Aug. 18. The New York Times/CBS poll has an error margin of 3 percentage points. It was conducted among 1,012 adults from Aug. 15 to Aug. 19.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5956554.html


here's the thing ....... cons were pretty quiet about their support of McCain early on in this while Obama backers were going nuts. now Obama is facing a LULL compared to where he was and McCain appears to be at HIS PEAK. One has room to swing up and the other to burn out.

now for your concideration - that voting fire gets stoked once the debates take place. The debates are what is going to make or break this and McCain sucks at debating.

I don't believe any of it..

Rather than the polls bickering about a few points here and there, it's probably just fair to say that McCain has cut somewhat into Obama's lead. And that for the most part, they're running pretty close.

Do any of you actually believe this election will be relevant and if so--why?

It doesn't matter who gets elected folks.... Nothing will change and the US will continue on the same path it is now.

It will be when it comes to Supreme Court nominees. Very Very relevant in that respect. Seeing as how there could be a couple more vacancies soon.

Hand that man a cigar!

...Oh goodness..
Do you enjoy living under a rock>

Ruth Ginburg has been wanting to retire but is holding off for a Democrat President.
The question is if McCain wins will she keep serving until she dies waiting for a Democrat President?

From the start I have stated that Obama is the best speaker among all of the candidates, and that is a big score.
But most of his policies are not as great, most of them are known failures that he wants to try again, and now we see he is not as good when it is not a prepared speech.
I think that is the reason for McCain closing the gap in polls.

Last weekend's televised forum with the two candidates was rather eye-opening, too.

"That's above my pay grade." Ya blew that one, pal!

" Do I enjoy living under a rock ? "

Sorry buddy. You lost me on that one.

I agree, thats all that was worth discussing. Can we close now?

Odd you don't ride so rough-herd on Ripley, Ninjaturtledude, et all.

Some polls are created to forge a winner in the minds of the voters. Many voters, who are ignorarnt of the issues or simply undecided, will jump on the polls' winner; hence, they voted for the winner. Very similar to ignorant bettors who will bet on the favorite.

I have to admit that for these polls at least, that use telephones as their source, the results can and are skewed. For instance there are four registered voters in my house and we don't have a landline. All Cell phones. So most all of these polling outfits will never contact folks like us. Not all polls are this way.

I have a land line and am polled about once a week for the past two months on issues/candidates ranging from federal to state. I should record them. You can create questions to skew your poll results however you want.

Having worked for Gallup Polls, several years ago, I can tell you they're certainly aware of that statistic. Hell, I'm middle-aged and don't have a landline. Gallup is quite progressive in their attempts to enlist cellular users and the younger half of the population, in general, into their loop.

A god allusion in a religious forum is blowing it?

Eye-opening? Hmmmm, two candidates are interviewed in front of a room full of members of one of the most conservative voting blocks in the country...which one will do better? Hmmmmm. The conservative, maybe? Wow, the conservative DID do better! Amazing!

The example you mention is perfect. If you're pro-choice, you are pretty effed with that crowd. What the heck are ya gonna say? Obama had to spend--what, 10 minutes?--qualifying his position and all McCain had to do was smirk and say one word: "conception." Let's have the next forum in an all black church in Chicago and see which candidate "wins."

Nothing anyone says can stop Ripley.

I also get ninja and acid confused alot, but for the most part they make POINTS and not just throw out accusations or blame "the liberal troop-hating, drug smoking, child killing population".. (of course replace all those words for the conservative kind, havn't heard much of that tho aside from the over the top repeating of "NEO-CON! WOOP WOOP!")

Right-arm!



That's humor (or lack thereof) from my youth, when the phrase "right on" was exclaimed frequently. Sorta like "farm-out," and "gravy."

yeahh..I seem to do that to people..

I don't think you win or lose a debate by winning over the crowd. You win or lose by the quality and consistency of your answers. You may only have a few thousand in attendance at the debate, but your answers to the questions will be heard by millions. And while McCain had a clear and definite answer to the question of when life begins, Obama had a no-answer answer. You don't need time to prepare for this question. Obama is pro-choice, ( which is fine. I am too ), He'd been better off just saying so instead of clearly dodging the question. Would he get booed by the crowd ? Sure. But you either stand by your positions and your beliefs, or you don't.

But McCain does it too. Many times he's had marble-mouth when answering questions.

I find it laughable that Republicans ( or independents ? ) are hurt over postings about their candidates yet do the same .

That's because it's an oversimplified and stupid question. It lends itself well to over-simplified and stupid answers, like McCain's soundbite response. A gamete is alive. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're looking for a social definition, not a biological one (unless you believe the social definition must match the biological one, in which case masturbation should be considered genocide). When does a person become a person, such that society is compelled to protect its life from others? I'm not a man of faith so I wouldn't quite echo Obama's answer, though there is some truth in it: it may well be above his pay grade (note to the many idiots who gleefully point out that there is no pay grade higher than the president's--he was talking about G-o-d, implying no human being can definitively say when life begins). That said, considering rights of the mother and privacy, I think a reasonable social definition of personhood would have it beginning at birth, when the child is no longer physically part of the mother.

No, Obama failed to answer a deeply philosophical question with a polished "definite" answer. Maybe Jim Lehrer will ask him why bad things happen to good people. If he can't answer a simple question like that in 30 seconds, surely he's not fit to be president!

By the way, about that worrying McCain lead.

Latest Washington Post-ABC:




This is pre-convention, pre-Biden pick.

oops

If Hillary had won the nomination, the Democrats would be well in the lead. She had worked hard on health plans and such-like for the people of America.

I can see McCain taking this election, despite being Republican, due to the fact that he has more experience than Obama, and served with the military. He will be decisive. Although, I am British and live in the UK. My daughter, my father, brother, and sisters are American born and bred. My mum and I are both UK born.

Obama is going to be seen as a man in kid's gloves compared to his rival. If Obama had Hillary as his VP hopeful, they would be higher in the polls.

Having lived in America, and know how the voting system works over there, I know that my family is unsure of Obama, and they would have preferred Hillary as the nominee. My dad being a bit of 'old school' and having served in the military, as well, would probably go for somebody like McCain, over Obama. My dad says that there is something about the man that he doesn't trust to be his president. He said as a person, Obama may be all right, but he wouldn't want him to run the country.

So you can see how the vote is going to sway in my family, as they feel McCain is more trustworthy as president than Obama. It has nothing to do with colour, in case, some of you suggest that is the case.

It doesn't bother me either way over here, who wins. However, I am interested as I have family over there, whose lives will be affected in the long term by the candidate who wins the election. I can only sit and watch.

Personally, if I was an American-neither candidate would get my vote, and I would be one to vote for Hillary, if she was nominated. Her policies she wanted to implement for healthcare etc. would helped America get back on it's feet.

Que Sera Sera!

Brilliant logic. Shoot that damn messenger!

NEWS FLASH for those not living in the US: They ARE.

Yup, they are. Just like the last 2 presidential election.