Bush Leads Kerry By Nine Points In NYTimes/CBS Poll; Taking Leads In Battleground States
In Saturday's edition, the New York Times reported President Bush leads John Kerry 50 percent to 42 percent "among registered voters," and "51 percent to 42 percent" among likely voters in the latest NYTimes/CBS poll. The "percentage of Americans who said they approved of Mr. Bush's job performance reached 50 percent, the highest since March." The CBS Evening News noted the new poll "finds that while the majority of Americans believe that President Bush isn't telling all about the war in Iraq, and that things are going badly there, they still support the President by almost 2 to 1 over John Kerry" on the issue of who they trust "to protect America."
Bush Leads In Key Swing States He Carried In 2000.
In addition to the CBS poll numbers, a new slate of state surveys spells trouble for the Kerry campaign. An MSNBC/Knight Ridder poll of 625 likely voters in five battleground states (carried by President Bush in 2000) shows:
In Arizona, 50% would vote for George W. Bush; 39% would vote for John Kerry.
In Missouri, 48% would vote for Bush; 41% would vote for Kerry.
In New Hampshire, 49% would vote for Bush; 40% would vote for Kerry.
In Nevada, 50% would vote for Bush; 45% would vote for Kerry.
In Ohio, 49% would vote for Bush; 42% would vote for Kerry. (The Cleveland Plain Dealer today runs the results of its own poll, showing Bush ahead 50%-42%, with Ralph Nader garnering 2%.)
In West Virginia, 45% would vote for Bush; 44% would vote for Kerry.
Reporting on the polls, NBC Nightly News said Bush's "overall job performance rating is above the critical 50% level in all five states, six weeks before the election. And even though there's been a lot of discussion about what the two candidates did in Vietnam, only one in five voters said that's going to be a factor on Election Day."
Bush Leads Kerry By Two Points In Three-Way Race In Iowa Poll.
The Des Moines Register reports a Strategic Vision poll of 801 likely Iowa voters, conducted over September 13-15 (+/- 3%), shows 48% would vote for George Bush and 47% would vote for John Kerry in a two-way race. In a three-way race, 48% would vote for Bush, 46% would vote for Kerry; and 2% would vote for Nader. Al Gore won Iowa by the narrowest of margins in 2000.
Kerry Has Withdrawn Nearly All Ads From Seven States, Including Colorado, Arkansas, Missouri.
Sen. Kerry's campaign had intended to take the battle for the White House to states the President carried in 2000, forcing him to spend precious resources defending his base. As the New York Times reports, Kerry "was advertising in 20 states earlier this summer." But "advertising data gathered for The New York Times by Nielsen Monitor-Plus shows that from Sept. 7 through last Thursday, Mr. Kerry was running advertisements in just 13 states. He had pulled back in seven that he had tried to make competitive, including the crucial battleground of Missouri." The battle "is now largely in states that Vice President Al Gore won in 2000, with exceptions like Florida and Ohio." From Sept. 7 to Sept. 12, Kerry "was advertising in a relatively narrow band of eight states. They included three big swing states – Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio – but he was also spending heavily in Wisconsin, which the Democrats barely won four years ago and where Mr. Kerry is trailing in the polls. The other four were Iowa, New Hampshire, New Mexico and West Virginia. By last Tuesday, as some polls showed Mr. Bush's bounce deflating, Mr. Kerry had expanded to four more: Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada and Oregon. By last Thursday, he had added Maine." Kerry "was still off or nearly off the air in seven where he had advertised earlier: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia."
