Washington, D.C. -- Things were looking scary for Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama following the announcement of Sarah Palin as John MCCain’s Running mate a few weeks ago. One outlier poll even had John McCain ahead by 10 points. According to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, however, Obama has now taken his most significant lead to date in the general election.
From the Washington Post:
More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, and as a result, there has been a rise in his overall support. The poll found that, among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent. Two weeks ago, in the days immediately following the Republican National Convention, the race was essentially even, with McCain at 49 percent and Obama at 47 percent. While this is good news for Obama, it's not time to cue the Ewok music just yet. Not only are polls at this stage of an election poor predictors, but this election has enough wild cards in it to stock an UNO deck.
Perfect storm of unprecedented facets in this election (first black nominee, oldest nominee, possible 1st female VP, least popular incumbent, etc.) notwithstanding, there are compelling reasons to think that this is more than just a capricious spike on a runaway rollercoaster. That poll goes on to say that voters' #1 issue is still the economy, but by a much wider margin (50%, as compared to 37% just two weeks ago). .
The economy has been a consistent positive for Obama, and a significant weakness for McCain. Not only has he said, repeatedly, that the economy isn't his "thing," but he also suffers from being surrounded by the architects of the current crisis.
Obama may have a nice-looking lead now, but rest assured, the American people are on the lookout for the next shiny object or bit of colorful yarn, and so is Team McCain.
Posted By: Minister Celeste Kelley
Friday, September 26th 2008 at 8:28AM
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