Wednesday
20Aug2008
Reuters/Zogby Poll Has McCain in 5 Point Lead Over Obama
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 09:47AM Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is losing ground to Republican John McCain according to the latest Reuters/Zogby poll. McCain is up 5% points over Obama:
Obama is losing the support of Democrats, women, Catholics, you name it from July until August.
I hope McCain doesn’t blow it by choosing a pro-choice VP like Tom Ridge or even Democrat like Joe Lieberman. It’s gotta be a Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee.
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Reader Comments (19)
These polls are saying what the most recent exit polls (in the Democratic primaries) were saying. According to some foreign newspapers, Obama mentioned in London that he was expecting his polls to go down on account of his absence. The downward trend must have been known to him by then.
I don't think his numbers went down because of his trip to Europe, or at lest for the reason you suggest. He made a spectacle of himself in Europe and his numbers started to fall...but when he came back to the states, took a vacation and did very poorly at Saddleback, revealing more of himself than ev-a, that's when he started to sink like a stone.
I agree with you. Obama suggested the reason, I did not. My implicit point was that his polls were showing different results from those available to the general public, and London was the last part of his European trip.
Three main things happened:
1- McCain debunked his celebrity rally routine;
2- The oil debate, in other words the economy;
3- Georgia: there are now 2 wars going on, one of them involving oil, with one tense situation, involving also oil and, like Afghanistan, in a country near Russia: the commander-in-chief issue.
Saddleback is interesting insofar as abortion is concerned. Pro-life voters have only two choices: vote for McCain or not vote at all. Pro-choice voters are scratching their heads.
What is surprising to me is not that Obama's poll numbers are beginning to slip, but rather that they are still as high as they are. In a rational world, Obama's support would be in line with Ralph Nader's or Cynthia McKinney's. But Obama just keeps floating along
Apparently helium doesn't leak out of an empty suit.
If you like these new poll results, you will like this piece of satire:
Bye Bye Barry
Joel S. Hirschhorn
The final results are in on this historic November day. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars he raised, Barack Obama has lost the 2008 presidential election. American voters have boldly spoken truth to arrogance. Turned out that all those pre-election opinion polls that showed Obama’s inability to get over 50 percent support were prescient. Much of the public was never comfortable with Obama, though he clearly was so comfortable acting like he already was president.
Hillary and Bill Clinton are probably drinking champagne and having the sweetest time since Bill won his first presidential election. Hillary must now bite her lip repeatedly and resist saying publicly that “I told you so!” Hillary in 2012 will reveal that she learned her lessons well.
All that Obama audacity of arrogance from the smiling, glib politician finally died the death it so richly deserved. Too many pundits will blame his loss on his blackness and racist voters. But the larger truth is that sufficient voters saw through the many lies and deceptions. Obama always had a hard time giving a simple, short straight answer to tough questions. He was always mentally calculating exactly how to game his answers so that he would achieve all the benefits he had his eyes on. He was simply too damn presumptuous and too smart for his own good. In the end, Americans do not want the smartest person in the presidency or endless nuancing. They want someone they can easily understand and trust, despite their skepticism. There were many reasons not to trust the calculating Obama to do anything he promised to do or, for some people, to fear he might.
And now the bloviating pundits will also blame third party presidential candidates for siphoning votes from Obama, as if Americans have no right to exercise their political freedom and vote for someone they honestly think has the best policy positions and would most help restore American democracy.
Jon Stewart and other late-night comics will feast on these election results, as they should. I can’t wait to hear jokes about Obama’s wife becoming a more vocal and militant critic of the good old USA, now that she has proof positive that so many Americans are stupid white racists.
Of course, now the nation must suffer through the ineptness, confusion and dementia-like dullness of the living-in-the-past John McCain, tough-talking but brain dead. Will the McCain presidency look like an extension of the incredible terrible George W. Bush White House? Of course.
Still living off a once-true characterization as a maverick, McCain must now surround himself with people who actually are smart and knowledgeable about myriad issues. Should be no problem finding enough lobbyists. Pundits will start speculating that McCain will be lucky just to stay alive for four years, but thankfully his vice-president seems more capable. One thing for sure: the power plutocracy that really runs the country will have little trouble pulling the strings behind the scenes and keep the puppet McCain dancing to tunes written by corporate interests.
Ralph Nader summed up this way: “A large fraction of Americans know that we need a Jeffersonian political revolution to fix our corrupt system. They were not fooled by the Obama rhetoric about change, not from someone that has been a product of and servant for the two-party plutocracy. Yes, all the votes for me and the other third-party presidential candidates spelled the difference between Obama winning and losing. Our voters correctly protested against the corrupt two-party system. They did not elect McCain. Only those who voted for McCain elected him, and that is something they must live with as they watch a McCain administration continue dismantling American democracy and budget-busting global warmongering.”
Cynthia McKinney wisely noted that “It is time to stop saying God bless America, and begin repeating God save America. The good news is that we will build even greater public support for a true political revolution during the McCain presidency. All too often things must get much worse before they can get better. They will get worse.”
As to Obama, half-jokingly he said: “I may come back as a third-party candidate.” Or did that reflect a calculation that Democrats had learned their lesson? As to all the screaming from the left that the Republicans stole this election also, Obama immediately said “John won it fair and square.” Thanks Barry, exactly what I expected from a phony change agent.
[Contact Joel S. Hirschhorn through www.delusionaldemocracy.com.]
Look, as I said, we need to end the Age of Oil, the Iraq, and the failed policy of The Bush regime, has endangered the world. Before the invasion, Global Warming did not exist. We need to end the military, it uses machines that use oil. We need to get out of our cars, and houses because the materials made use oil to make them. We need to go back to hunter and gatherers as our ancestors. The Democratic Party is behind me, and I ask you to step on board. Since Puteeput listened to me, so will Ahmaddinnerjacket, and Chaves, they will do what I say. I have that power. We no longer will need cars, electricity, kitchens, homes, or gardeners to tend to them with their gas powered machines. We will live in the bushes, not at Bush's Ranch, but shrubs and eat off the land. I have the support of Europe, Middle East, China, India, Pakistan, people on the Moon, and K-Mart employees. We no longer need education, schools take energy to keep them running, and this is a Bush failed policy. In fact Reed, Pelosi, Murtha, and my Democratic brethren and sithren are behind me 1000%, Now join me. I'm the candidate for Change, and when I say change, I really mean Change.
LOL! Nice work, Obama is here...
:D
BA, point taken.
Polls are only indicators and they change constantly. Who knows what can happen between now and Nov. 2. McCain is scandal free as far as we know so I don't expect an October surprise, but Obama will likely get a boost from the convention next week.
Too bad John Edwards wasn't the presumptive nominee.
Gee, Mr 'Obama is Here',
can you please teach me to walk on water and turn water into wine and multiply fishes and loaves? I got 4 kids... but you already knew that, eh? LOL!
Obama is the conservative's best friend. Clearly, the polls are now above his pay grade as well. All McCain has to do is not fall on his sword between now and November.
Joel,
Start the Revolution without me.
McCain is more qualified to be president then Obama. That story line is pushing back the advantages Democrats had this year. The Europe trip of Obama was a big mistake, he should have gone quiet like, buisness like and profesional. An actual fact finding tour and not a photo-op dog and pony show, the public would have liked it better.
Well, well, well ... I see y'all have finally discovered "scientific" polls. Your rational approach to politics continues to 'evolve'.
However, maybe y'all wanta learn what the term "outlier" means. I could 'plagiarize' it from Wikipedia if that would help.
Snerd
McCain:
1. Cheated on his previous wife with Cindy Mccain while she was recovering from a car accident. Promptly divorces the bed ridden woman.
2. Admits he knows "almost nothing" about the economoy.
3. Paints obama, the son of a sheep herder and welfare recepient as an "elitist" while walking around in $520 loafers.
4. Disregards rules of town hall forum by arriving 1/2 hour late outside the "cone of silence".
5. Claims he will run a campaign on "the issues" yet runs ads comparing Obama to Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears.
6. Was smeared by Karl Rove/ GW Bush to lose the nomination in 2000 yet uses those same individuals to smear Obamas character.
7. Graduated second from the bottom in his class at the naval academy.
8. When asked what he would have done differently than bush over the last 8 years he replied: "Nothing"
9. McCain's Tax Plan Gives Top Five Oil Companies $3.8 Billion A Year In Tax Breaks.
10. Doesnt even know how many houses he owns.
ask yourself:
we've had 8 years of john mccain and republican rule, are we as a country better off than we were 8 years ago?
and then read what a fellow pow who served with mccain says here:
http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,164859_1,00.html
Zogby sends a poll to me every week. I answer the Qs every week. McCain's numbers go up every week.
You're welcome.
McCain ads have been pretty much on the money. The Paris/Britney ad was very effective. Obama was acting like a celebrity. So? The point of the ad was spot on: He's a superstar but can he lead? That was a legitimate point.
Amy: ..." The Paris/Britney ad was very effective. Obama was acting like a celebrity."
SG: How? Exactly how was Obama acting like a celebrity?
Snerd
Amy: ..." The Paris/Britney ad was very effective. Obama was acting like a celebrity."
SG: How? Exactly how was Obama acting like a celebrity?
Snerd
Amy,
youre right again!
Mccain is scandal free up until this point. Thank god the media doesnt make a big deal over his stating that czechoslovakia is still a country or that " Pakistan borders iraq".
Not to mention the fact that no one has a clue who/what the KEATING 5 are?
HA! I love it.
Mccain is getting away scott free..hopefully they continue to pound obama on the things that matter..like his not wearing a flag, or his celebrity, or his muslim schooling...thats where the focus needs to stay.
I mean seriously, what does it matter that Mccain has 8 houses and cant remember...or that he cheated on his first wife while she was in the hospital recovering from a car accident...that stuff doesnt matter.
What matters is that Obama will say ANYTHING to get elected.
I don't recall either of those McCain gaffes, but Obama makes more than McCain. He has quite a trail, like 57 states, etc., but I chalk most of that up to the fact that these candidates use millions of words and are bound to make flubs. I try not to unfairly point out the honest mistakes of Obama, and he makes quite a few.
McCain called his divorce and the situtation surrounding it the greatest moral failure of his life. Do you think John Edwards cheating on his cancer striken wife or Bill Clinton's nymphomania is a matter of grave moral failing like McCains (whcih was what, 25 years ago?) or "just sex"?
McCain's wife inherited a fortune. I think wealth is a good thing unless its abused. I have no jealousy issues over McCain's wife's personal possessions.