Yet another poll, this time the LA Times/Bloomberg poll, puts this race in a statistical tie. Obama now only “leads” 45 - 43% (with 10% undecided). The two percent difference is well within the margin of 3%. The “negative ads” (also known in the real world as contrast ads) have been working.
Read on for some of the break downs.
McCain drew stronger support from his party than Obama from his. McCain has 90% of the Republican vote to 78% of the Democrat vote for Obama.
The race tightens up even more when they include the other candidates by name. Obama garners 42%, McCain 41%, Nader 4%, Barr 1% and McKinney doesn’t even register (11% undecided here).
Obama wins the enthusiasm award. No surprises there. 78% of his voters are enthusiastically voting for him compared to 61% for McCain.
McCain overwhelmingly wins the experience category. He dominated all categories that they measured including Dem, Lib and Black. 80% believe that McCain has the experience to lead to Obama’s 44%. Obama also had 48% who answered that he doesn’t have the experience to lead (including 24% of those who identified themselves as liberal).
McCain wins the foreign relations category (presumably his response to Russia/Georgia has helped this). He garners a 77% positive rating to Obama’s 63%.
God help us, but Obama is winning on the economy (45 - 28%). This is really interesting. Obama only manages a lead that is within the margin of error on the overall poll, but he wins the number one issue by a healthy margin. Go figure.
One disturbing thing that I saw way too much of at the end of the poll was questions about race. When are we going to move beyond race as a dividing line?
Sen Obama cannot! Race is all he has.