Poll: Convention lifts McCain over Obama

Source: USA TODAY

The Republican National Convention has given John McCain and his party a significant boost, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken over the weekend shows, as running mate Sarah Palin helps close an "enthusiasm gap" that has dogged the GOP all year.

McCain leads Democrat Barack Obama by 50%-46% among registered voters, the Republican's biggest advantage since January and a turnaround from the USA TODAY poll taken just before the convention opened in St. Paul. Then, he lagged by 7 percentage points.

The convention bounce has helped not only McCain but also attitudes toward Republican congressional candidates and the GOP in general.

"The Republicans had a very successful convention and, at least initially, the selection of Sarah Palin has made a big difference," says political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. "He's in a far better position than his people imagined he would be in at this point."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-07-poll_N.htm

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Yikes.

of the day....

be..we have watch this country go down the tubes and we cheer for more..

It helps to identify specifics about Palin such as being forced to have an administer to run the city while she pretended to be mayor.

Our elected were wonderful... and not hateful.

That these 2 deeply stupid idiots are even running makes this country one big irrelevant joke.

to try and steal it but we cannot let that happen this time.

Keep the polls artificially close.
Insert <voter purge, electronic vote manipulation, voter caging, etc..>
Voila. The Maverick pulls off a narrow, but convincing victory.
'Murka yawns and turns on Fox News.
America slips into the septic tank of History.

Unfortunately, we're also not irrelevant. A bad US government has the potential to affect the whole world (economically, foreign policy-wise, etc.). It is essential that Barack gets in the White House

And she's running for (defacto) president?!

The polls are proving this to be true as both fox news and cnn are hammering Palin down everyone's throat.

how she's the end for him and then the media spins her into a darling that's here to save us all. This is really ridiculous! What are the qualifications necessary for the presidency of the U.S.? Is anybody qualified? Come on!

...and any replay of the OUTSTANDING Democratic Convention in Denver...within a few hours to cover the Palin VP announcement on Friday. And then made it Palin/McCain/Republican Convention 24/7 ever since.

The Rep. Convention has been over for three days...yet it keeps getting replayed and replayed constantly. I sure would like to hear Barack's speech again, wouldn't you?

Has ANYONE from ANY television organization discussed the important numbers (like attendance)? Is anyone talking about all those empty seats? No. They are spinning the conventions to be equal...never mind that what there WAS of a Republican convention was poorly organized, ill-run, and essentially a 'knock-off' of the Democrats' ideas.

So...thanks MSM. I had hoped 2008 would be more fair than 2004. How disappointing!

http:/

...truthfightsback.org

Perhaps you don't remember that the hurricane interfered. I did see replays of the dem convention and the coverage while it was going on was excellent. So, I think you are barking up the wrong tree here. McCain actually pulled off a genius move in choosing Palin, and Obama campaign was not prepared for her at all. Guess everyone thought it would be Romney. The "old geezer" label and "just like George Bush" label was working really well with McCain, but he swept that away with his choice. Whodathunkit? He made the least likely choice that anyone expected, and it was certainly the opposite of what George Bush would do.

...are beginning to have an impact. Blasting the mother of a Down's kid for being a bad mom? Working moms can't have high-level jobs because they need to be at home with the kids? And don't get me started on the whole baby-switching thing. Sheesh.

Why do you think Obama told his people to cut any attacks on Palin's family, etc., and that he'd fire any staffer involved in anything like that? He got it real quick. She is middle America and trashing her only backfires with swing state voters. Better to take her on regarding policy ONLY, or better yet, don't MENTION her and stay on message - Change, No four more years.

Instead I've seen post after post of people saying "Well Obama has to say that, but we should keep digging for dirt and spread it around!" as if fools have better political instincts than Obama whose incredible skills have brought about his meteoric rise. Thanks DU and DKos (among others) for wiping out Obama's convention bounce through stupidly falling into McCain's trap. Palin as tar-baby. Better hope for a briar patch.

And enough of this pandering to middle America bullshit. The rest of America matters too.

Spoken like a true electoral loser.

Try running that line past an Obama campaign staffer in Ohio or Pennsylvania and count how many nanoseconds before they tell you to stop helping McCain.

That Obama supporters should not follow his lead when he says loud and clear to stop gratuitous attacks on Palin? Or maybe you are smarter than that in some unfathomable way.

this place went to hell during the primaries

I started off thinking Hillary would be best, but then shifted to Obama, all the while respecting both. But I was surprised by the level of anti-Clinton vitriol that spewed forth on the DU. So counterproductive. Seeing the latest, I guess that this must be a feature, not a bug.

but the Obama is a saint/Hillary is evil theme got old very, VERY quickly.....but you are correct, it is indeed a regretable feature of DU

Palin would not have even been a blip on the radar if Obama had selected Hillary for VP. Guess we work with what we are given though.

...yesterday:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6949436

The fight should be on issues. We are in a war and ready to be at war with Russia, Iran, N. Korea and Cuba. Unemployment is at record highs. Banks are collasping. No one can afford health care.

Dems should be ahead by 50 points!!!

If we lose this election....

Continuing this ridiculous stuff is going to kill us.

Are people really that stupid that they would fall for Palin? Are they so shallow that they base their votes on on such simplistic criteria, dah " I like vanilla and she likes vanilla, therefore I will vote for McCain."

PEOPLE ARE THAT FUCKING STUPID

with Skittles. DO NOT underestimate the stupidity of voters. Have any of you heard people and what they're saying? I overheard one Democrat say to me "The highlight of the Republican Convention was when the cameras panned to the little girl holding her brother and she was smoothing down his hair." I heard someone else say, a professional woman, say, "I think Palin is cute." I want to go bang my head against a wall when I overhear this crap.

We have an American public who thinks they're voting in "Dancing with the Stars" instead of the future of our country. It sickens me.

We need to get out there and make sure we get the younger people to the polls. They are going to vote Obama. Forget the old white men.

My guess is that the convention bounce fades like most do, over the next week or two. McCain has cast so many votes over the years that they will come back to haunt him.

I’m not surprised, this was far more than a gimmick for McCain. Republicans just weren’t excited about him, he’s not a hard liner. We compare every one to Reagan and he is rather far from him. Most of us are mad at Bush for a lot of the things he is doing, like not keeping the budget balanced and just printing more money, any one who has study economy will tell you that such actions lead to inflation. More over there is that high way in Texas and the amnesty bill. We were not even that excited for him the first time if you think you were surprised Gore lost look at us. My father did not believe it for a week.
We see McCain as just one more Politian using the veil of conservatism as a means to an end. He has a life time concretive rating of 72%, we respect him, but the GOPs core beliefs are a small government, low taxis, and free market economics. And neither Bush or McCain really have these values. Then he picks a Real conservative, she is like Reagan is a skirt. Pro-guns, pro-life, pro-free market, pro-choice for education. Hard working, and some one who is truly a rugged individualist. We have not been excited for a candidate since Reagan. Palin is what the Right is really about, people working hard, facing hardships, and tacking down the false republicans. All most all Republicans feel that most people who get elected as Republicans are not what we are truly about. The fact that Palin is a woman is the icing on the cake, not the cake.
Palin makes us fell about politics the way Obama makes you guys feel. The only difference is that Obama has been energizing the left for 9 months and he is starting to be worn down.,(I don’t hate Obama I think he’s probably a nice guy and some one I would love to debate with. I just disagree with him.) Palin is new and can sprint for the next two month. We all say it’s about who’s running for prez but we all know in politics its the image that’s important and the Idea of a “Maverick” and a “Barracuda” are powerful philological images. Palin is not a gimmick, this is a high stakes mind game and Obama can still win if he takes a break for a week and comes out strong for the debates

:rofl:

Anyhow, welcome to DU :hi:

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....what repugs and democrats are ALL ABOUT, can be summed up neatly. Democrats believe that we're all in this together, and try to help each other out. Repugs say, "you're on your own, no help from us, good fucking luck." I'm so tired of these exclamations of 'small government 'low taxes', 'free market'. This mantra is so fucking tired and old. You clearly havent seen these qualities in a republican politician in YEARS, yet the bullshit keeps spewing out. This country is mired down with such debt and partisanship, caused by the criminals in this white house, that i cant even fathom that theres a single person alive that wouldnt blame in on republican politics. Do the fucking math. Yet still, we have to be told that this idiotic woman is "energizing". I havent been energized by a pretty little cheerleader since grade school. What does energize me is..intelligence, poise, intelligence, sophistication, intelligence etc.., qualities which are abundantly evident in our candidate, and seriously lacking in this joke of a politician, Palin. This whole situation is so obviously 'Rovian" that it makes me sick. You should be ashamed of belonging to a party that gets 'energized' by the likes of Palin. I was always taught that education and intelligence were the most important qualities that one needed to succeed, particularly for leaders. Americans have been dumbed down so much by the likes of o'reilly, hannity, prager, etc... to think that being 'regular' is the goal, and education is for the 'elites'. Personally, i'd much rather 'sit down and have a beer' with my friends, all the while knowing that my elected officials were the smartest, most well educated people around. Oh, and by the way, if i ever saw a 'gimmick', this palin bullshit would rank up there with the best of them. The american sheep love a good reality show, the repugs know this, so they served up one on a silver platter. And the uneducated masses are eating it up. Its so disgusting and makes me so irate, that i'm stopping my rant now, before i digress further into republican bashing and start to look crazier than i really am :) But, then again, who could possibly have stayed sane watching this fucking circus for the last 8 years.

Oh, then she would have to talk to the press. Nevermind.

You know, I was surprised and pleased to see this comment. I know we get red staters in stealth mode kicking up the mud all the time in here but I respect that this guy made no attempt to to be anything other than honest. It was a fair opinion, disagree with it or not and I think we should be doing this kind of thing more than just raving to our own choirs. I am utterly fascinated by what makes people buy into the GOP philosophy, both the idealized one and the real one. It's so counterintuitive to me that anyone could see this as a good philosophy but people I consider perfectly normal and rational do. In fact, America is probably the most right wing of the industrialized world, left and right here would be right and very right by Europe's standards. So I welcome someone coming in here and trying to explain their POV to me.
When my wife said, ha, that's McCain finished, he just chose a no experience nobody from Alaska as his VP. I said, hmmm, I wouldn't be so sure.
We need to hope for an event now that reminds everyone that the bums that McCain is promising to throw out are in fact his bums. I seriously suspect America doesn't really know which party Bush belongs to and which one McCain belongs to, no honestly, I bet if there was a poll the results would be scary.
Just keep saying they've had it their way for what, 8 years, 12 years, whatever it is. Have you noticed how bad things are? Have you noticed how expensive everything is? Have you noticed your jobs are now in India? Have you noticed you can't afford health care? Have you noticed your kids can't read? Do you know who has been in charge for the last 8 years? Do you really think it is a good idea to put them back in charge again? Haven't you had enough yet?

However, it's all about the economy and the economy sucks.

Obama and Biden know it and will hammer it home.

But they can't just win. They need a "theft proof" margin.

and where.

Seems to me that they are taking 500 people and making their assessment based on that.

These 'polls', as far as I am concerned, are as irrelevant as Palin.

My own sister (admittedly not a deep thinker) thought Palin was kind of cool and funny.

Palin's stand-up act has voters forgetting the shape this country is in.

And who's responsible.

That this country is screwed up because of GOPig policies. The Republicans and the media will try to make this high school popularity election. We need to run good ads how bad stuff has went since 2000 under Bush/Cheney and that McCheney/ProzacII will do it the same way. Palin ran up the debt in Alaska too.

they'll be knocking down mccain by the end of the week - gotta keep this a tight horserace to keep people watching/listening

they are making a reality show

Someone on DU said that one of the polls always showed a dip for Obama at the end of the week. Speculation was that the young are too busy having fun to be home taking a poll.

Does Gallop do cell phones?

This is a convention bounce. As soon as a new candidate for American Idol emerges, the idiots who would shift so easily from Obama to McCain will change back again. The more intelligent people will find out what a right-wing nutjob Mrs. Moose is and go back to Obama.

It'll return to levels near where we were before the conventions. Incidentally, didn't Mondale have a huge lead after the '84 DNC? And we see how that worked out.

and we struggle to get the truth out in dribs and drabs to the uninformed.

Sigh

It is mind boggling to me how little policy seems to matter to so many Americans. How they are simply manipulated by image and personality.

the make-up of the sample? How many were Republican, Democratic, and Independent? How many were male and female? What was the distribution by age or socio-economic status? What was the ethnic make-up of the pool surveyed? Also just because one says they had a successful convention does not make it so. McCain's speech was generally regarded as a bust. The cynical remarks and negative innuendos read by Palin as her speech written for her were also not well received. The behavior of the police overagainst protestors and anyone standing near them was deplorable. This is one paper trying to keep the myth alive that a large part of the American public believes in McCain and the vastly underprepared VP candidate. Check out the electral vote section of this paper. "In the new poll, taken Friday through Sunday, McCain leads Obama by 54%-44% among those seen as most likely to vote. The survey of 1,022 adults, including 959 registered voters, has a margin of error of +/— 3 points for both samples." How many identified themselves as most likely to vote out of the 1,022 adults. Was this conducted by land line phones? How many 18-30 year olds have land line phones anymore? One really needs to look at the details to find the devil. This is a snapshot that is all with no real reliability with a margin of error such as it is. What regions of the nation were surveyed? I can go on and on but suffice it to say the sky is not falling.

I just can't take this shit any longer. When I talk politics at work, people are just so brain dead to the ramifications of what we've been put through by following conservo-policies for the past forty years. 8 years of * have about put us to death as a nation and people just don't care enough to educate themselves.

most of the world doesn't allow elections let alone fair and open elections
:sarcasm:


but true just the same

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Most states won't allow free elections for a serious third party choice.

imo, a third choice should be a box marked ; "no confidence" in either choice