McCain Team Blasts Poll That Shows Obama Leading by 9 Points
The national survey finds economic fears are boosting Obama, but McCain aides call it an outlier
Republican presidential nominee John McCain's campaign this morning pushed back hard against a new Washington Post-ABC News national poll that shows Democratic nominee Barack Obama leading McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent, a substantial shift from the dead heat the poll found two weeks ago.
The new lead, the poll found, has been driven by the country's economic turmoil and the greater trust surveyed voters say they place in Obama on economic issues. "Economy voters," the survey found, preferred Obama 2 to 1.
But in a nearly hourlong conference call with reporters just two days before the crucial first presidential debate, McCain's lead pollster Bill McInturff criticized the survey as an "outlier." He said it is not reflective of other polls that show a tight race, particularly in 12 battleground states that the GOP camp has been focused on.
"We have an incredibly stable race," said McInturff, who insisted that the campaign's internal tracking has not revealed any volatility in public opinion over the past 2½ weeks as the financial crisis has unfurled. Professing respect for the Post-ABC pollsters, he added, "I don't think these results are at all indicative of what's happening in the campaign."
"The race," he said, "is margin of error nationally." The poll-tracking website RealClearPolitics.com shows Obama currently with an aggregate 3.2 percentage-point edge in an average of national polls.
McInturff also suggested that historic polling models being used are obsolete because they are unable to factor in what is expected to be record turnout—he predicts 125 million—and unprecedented excitement. "Lots and lots of people no one has ever seen before" are going to show up and vote in this election, he said.
He and Sarah Simmons, the campaign's strategy director, said the McCain camp believes that voters have yet to resolve how they feel about the financial crisis—and whom they blame. And they predicted that McCain's edge with voters on the issues of experience and leadership will emerge as his strength as the crisis plays out.
Oh, and about the Sarah Palin effect: "She's a big deal," McInturff said of McCain's running mate. And if not for the economic crisis, she'd still be a big national story. "She's had an extraordinary effect," he said.
Reader Comments
McCain is now TOAST!
McCain is toast.
Rick Davis and (ex-Rove aide) Steve Schmidt, his campaign managers saw to that when they picked Sarah Palin for him.
Even Republicans now think she is a dolt and are moving away from the ticket fast.
Sarah Palin (and George Bush) are the best things that could have happened for Obama.
America is finally waking up and not a moment too soon!
Colorado's what matters, not the national poll
McCain is trailing Obama by about 5% in Colorado, a state that Bush won by 4.7% in 2004. If McCain can't win Colorado then he doesn't have a chance to win the electoral vote. Forget the plural "Swing States", it's a single Swing State that's going to be the deciding factor this time around.
Best,
Obamas winning and your all mad
Obamas ahead all across the nation you people have something to fear and it's not Obama it's the republican party. I can say that because I am a republican but a disgusted one. I have vote with my party truely and then I get told I have to vote for McCain because he is for change and reorming when I know all about John McCain and he is by far a reformer. I remember a little thing called the Keeting Five a little thing John McCain doesn't want us to remember. I don't see how him not debating or campaigning is gonna help he is not even in on the vote for this bailout he is an outsider to it. They can offer their opinion on it but it doesn't matter what either of them do it is Congresses decision not theirs. John is a quitter and we saw it before when he pulled out of the race against Bush because he got thrown under the bus by his own party. I can see it's politics as usual for John McCain when the tough get going hit the reset button and hope they forget what you said the first time. I don't know I like it when people stay calm in situations like this not panic because you have no clue on what to do.
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