USA Today/Gallup poll: Obama 48, McCain 42

Poll: Split electorate nudges Obama ahead


Updated 19h 43m ago

By Susan Page, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Illinois Sen. Barack Obama hasn't gotten much of a bounce among voters nationwide since clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows.
Obama leads Republican John McCain by 48%-42% among registered voters in the survey, taken Sunday through Thursday. In a survey taken May 30 to June 1, Obama held a three-point lead over the Arizona senator.

Among likely voters, Obama led McCain by 50%-44%, an insignificant change from his earlier standing of 49%-44%.

Obama claimed the nomination on June 3, when primaries in Montana and South Dakota gave him a majority of delegates to the Democratic National Convention, meeting in August.

The survey of 1,625 adults — including 1,460 registered voters and 1,310 likely voters — has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.

Both contenders have largely solidified their standing among party regulars. Obama is backed by 84% of Democrats, McCain by 87% of Republicans; 9% of Democrats and 9% of Republicans defect to the other side.

Among independents — the group that usually determines election outcomes — Obama leads 48%-36%.


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http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-06-20-poll-friday_N.htm

by 16 points and it was a landslide.

It's so funny watching the media spin poll results. I mean, I know that it's my own fault for watching, but this part actually amuses me more than it angers me. MSNBC was showing these results, and they completely mumble the Obama lead and then try and produce a horserace by saying that McCain and Obama are tied amongst forty somethings, so forty somethings will decide the election, since younger people tend to go for Obama and older people tend to go for McCain. So, so far I have heard the media say this year, depending on the point of the race and the poll results, that the race will be "decided" by evangelicals, hispanics, white blue collar workers, women, elderly women....now I guess the new convenient theme to push is that the forty somethings will decide the election. They showed a forty sometihng stay at home mom from New Jersey saying that she was a Hillary fan, but now she's undecided. It made me feel badly, because she seemed really softspoken and just kind of confused and indifferent. It's sad that someone could be so lost as to who to vote for at this point in the race, especially when their previous choice had nearly identical policies to the other candidate of the party .