Oct. 14, 2008
Poll: Obama Opens 14-Point Lead On McCain
CBS News/New York Times Survey Shows Major Swing Among Independents, Suggests McCain's Strategy May Be Hurting Him
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Obama Takes Big Lead In Poll
With only three weeks until the election, Barack Obama has a 14-point lead over John McCain, according to a new poll. Obama also leads in the personality department. Dean Reynolds reports.
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Obama, McCain Economic Plans
As the race for the White House draws to a close, candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have each unveiled proposed economic policies in the hopes of swaying voters. Karen Brown reports.
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Poll Positions
Listen to CBS News director of surveys Kathy Frankovic dissect the data to see what's driving public opinion.
Obama holds a more than 20-point edge when it comes to understanding voters' needs and problems, with 64 percent saying Obama does and 43 percent saying McCain does.
The Republican nominee does hold a clear advantage on being seen as prepared to be president, as he has throughout the campaign. That measure does not appear to be boosting his support, however, perhaps because while 64 percent say McCain is prepared for the job, more than half say Obama is as well.
Just 7 percent of registered voters say their opinion of McCain has improved recently, while 21 percent say it has gotten worse. The numbers are nearly reversed for Obama: Seventeen percent say their opinion of Obama has improved in recent weeks, while 7 percent say it has declined.
Obama now enjoys leads over McCain with both men (53 percent to 41 percent) and women (52 percent to 37 percent). Eighty-two percent of voters who backed Hillary Clinton in the primaries now say they will back Obama - up from 67 percent last week and the highest number to date.
McCain still leads among Republicans, conservatives and white evangelicals, but the race is now roughly even among whites, a group McCain led 54 percent to 39 percent last week.
With voter registration up in many key states this year, 63 percent of those casting a ballot for first time in 2008 are backing Obama.
The Debates And The Candidates' Past Associations
Seven in 10 registered voters said they watched last week’s presidential debate, and, looking back, 57 percent of debate watchers said Obama won the contest. Just 18 percent saw the debate as a McCain victory.
Expectations are high for Obama in Wednesday's third and final debate, which 65 percent of registered voters say they are very likely to watch. Nearly half of all registered voters expect Obama will win the debate, while just 19 percent expect McCain to win.
Recently, the McCain campaign has gone after Obama about his relationship with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, and McCain has signaled that he will mention Ayers in the debate.
One in three voters say they have heard "a lot" about Ayers, and 31 percent say they have heard something about him, though far fewer - 9 percent - say the association bothers them.
Four percent of voters say that it bothers them that Obama is a Muslim, which he is not. Fifty-six percent say nothing about Obama’s past bothers them.
As for the Republican candidate, seven in ten voters say nothing about McCain’s past bothers them. Four percent mention the Keating Five scandal that McCain was involved in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
A majority of registered voters believe the tone of the 2008 campaign has been about the same as in past years. Thirty percent say it has been more negative, while 15 percent say it has been more positive.
Democrats, Republicans, And The 2008 House Vote
Americans have a much higher opinion of the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. A majority - 52 percent - have a favorable opinion of the Democrats, while far less - 37 percent - have a favorable opinion of Republicans.
The Democratic Party is seen as more likely than the Republican Party to make the right decision on health care (55 percent to 18 percent), the economy (47 percent to 29 percent), and the war in Iraq (44 percent to 37 percent).
And when it comes to the House Of Representatives, 48 percent of likely voters say they will be choosing the Democratic candidate in November, compared to 34 percent who plan to vote for the Republican candidate.
This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1070 adults nationwide, including 972 registered voters, interviewed by telephone October 10-13, 2008. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample and the sample of registered voters could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 2103 CommentsFor giving Us:
Immeasurable debt-
Military stretched to implosion-
Failure of our banks
Suspension of Habeus Corpus
Unecessary war for Corporate Profit
And Finally
Socialization of our Financial Institutions
RepugnantCons
The New Reds
Given that a number of the other things you cite, like the immigration amnesty program, originated with Pres. Bush, I fail to see your logic in blaming them on the Demos. You must be getting your speaking points from Rush without bothering to research them.
And I don''t know whether "tax and spend Democrats" would be better than "borrow and spend Republicans." But I can''t see how they could be *worse*.
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The President of the U.S. doesn%u2019t spend money nor does the pres pass bills/or legislation
Congress and Senate pass bills make laws, and spend money.
President only can purpose spending and bills, unless he makes Pres orders.
Posted by ShannonJane6 at 06:40 PM : Oct 14, 2008
+ report abuse
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Shannon, I highly respect your right to vote for who you want, but please respect our intellegence and quit prefacing your posts with " One month ago I was going to vote for Obama."
We all know better, and in fact, I suspect you are a Republican campaign person, either a volunteer, or paid to post. That is OK by me, but we know that by the tone of your post, you were never thinking about voting for Obama.
Ya'' know guys,your tiresome act of posting LIES to scare the dimwitted republican voting base is as transparent as looking out a freshly cleaned window on a clear, sunny day.
Take your B.S. elsewhere and waste the time of some drolling republicans who are stupid enough to believe Fox News,and YOU......
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How about OBAMAGATE.
I was one month ago going to vote for Obama.,,,,
Are Americans finally waking up?
Something''s askew here.
Oh, By the way, Carter had an *energy policy* for alternative fuels. He called the energy crisis the "moral equivilant of war"
That imbecile Reagan canceled the Carter research in deference to his repub oil buddies. Just imagine if we had 29 years of alternative fuels research under our belts,and a fleet of 40MPG vehicles. We couldn''t have that either as that idiot "visionary" Reagan did away with the CAFE standards as well.
Your buddy Reagan also financed the TRAINING OF BIN LADEN.
We all know how well THAT worked out!!!
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Carter''''s policies didn''t work then and they will not work now.
It''s amazing how you don''t apply your lofty standards to a (cretin) liar,and war criminal like George W Bu$h.....
I would never vote for that Muslim pretender Hussein who worships at a racist church and who bought his house with the help of a convicted con man.
Posted by vitterdidder at 06
Something''''s askew here.
Posted by HawkSprings
Boohoo. Obama is the next prez .... get used to it.
Well, that''s kind of a Democratically-leaning interpretation . . . I''m part of that group and I''m leaning left rather than right now, and while I think less of McCain and while I agree that McCain''s attacks on Obama and his choice of Palin have hurt him, that''s all said through the filter of it being all about the economy right now and about it feeling like the GOP platform is almost dangerous at this point in time.
Even if McCain wanted to shift farther left, the Conservatives won''t let him. And without the shift those of us in the middle are being forced to pick between the extremes.
I''m scared of the way the Dem Congress flies through money, not having altered their behavior one bit in terms of curbing spending or showing awareness that nationalization of banks and guaranteeing loans ought to also have greater oversight along with it. They''re half the problem.
It just seems like the laissez-faire ideology displayed by Paulson, etc is even scarier (?)
Spreading lies and leading people to bogus sites with fake articles, you think that''s going to make your case, Republicans? If lies and fearmongering is all you got, then I speak for most Americans and Europeans when I say, Go Obama! Save us from this disastrous mess Republicans got us into.
Posted by rayhyson at 06:51 PM : Oct 14, 2008
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...and Santa may be too busy entertaining the Easter Bunny. It''s really crapshoot.
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I''''m scared of the way the Dem Congress flies through money,
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Posted by melchg at 06:54 PM : Oct 14, 2008
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Give it up, melchg. I suspect Shannon is sitting in a room with 50 PC''s somewhere overseas getting paid to post by the Republican national committee. Her/his native language is not English and new immigrants to this country overwhelmingly support Obama. So our only other choice is a paid over-seas poster.
Please keep posting your "fear and smear" junk. People are sick of it, and it is driving McCain down down down. Keep up the good work!! Thanks!
PS Oops, I mean I''m part of that group . . . were that 21% who actually told pollsters that they thought less of McCain all Independents though or were they Dems (like Dems who are starting to sort of ''come home'' and take a side)?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html
Posted by ShannonJane6
I think Ayers IS relevant to the issue of Barack''s ambition and what he''s willing to do to get ahead.
But in terms of showing Barack''s like an ''extremist'' hiding his ''anti-American'' ideology, I find that argument offensive . . .
CBS IS NO LONGER A NEWS ORGANIZATION.
Its a bunch of old hippies turned into Journalists who want to tell the rest of us what to do.
During his tenure on the board of Chicago''s Woods Fund, that body funneled more than $200,000 to Acorn. More recently, the Obama campaign paid $832,000 to an Acorn affiliate. The campaign initially told the Federal Election Commission this money was for "staging, sound, lighting." It later admitted the cash was to get out the vote.
The Obama campaign is now distancing itself from Acorn, claiming Mr. Obama never organized with it and has nothing to do with illegal voter registration. Yet it''s disingenuous to channel cash into an operation with a history of fraud and then claim you''re shocked to discover reports of fraud. As with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers, Mr. Obama was happy to associate with Acorn when it suited his purposes. But now that he''s on the brink of the Presidency, he wants to disavow his ties.
The Justice Department needs to treat these fraud reports as something larger than a few local violators. The question is whether Acorn is systematically subverting U.S. election law -- on the taxpayer''s dime.
Please keep posting your "fear and smear" junk. People are sick of it, and it is driving McCain down down down. Keep up the good work!! Thanks!
Then again the bigot accusations are coming from the Dems too . . . as if those of us who don''t think Barack is the Messiah like they do must surely be bigots.
Ugh - what an election
Thanks to ACORN and all the fraudulent voter registrations, Obama might be up in the polls, but remember, all those felons and drug addicts still have to remember to actually vote.
Good luck with that.
Posted by tonyatq
It''s that sort of ACTUAL bigotry that''s the chief reason I''m personally still considering voting for McCain . . . Dems are just as bigoted as they fancy the Repubs to be . . .
Thanks to ACORN and all the fraudulent voter registrations, Obama might be up in the polls, but remember, all those felons and drug addicts still have to remember to actually vote.
Good luck with that.
Posted by HawkSprings
fear and smear
Posted by TotalKaosDav
Nice try, but no cigar.
The "source" is the entity that commissioned the survey. The organization who did it would be a professional organization which makes a living out of doing scientific surveys. This survey result will likely be reflected in other surveys in the coming days.
Posted by SilBot64
McCain is too cowardly to do this to his face.
Posted by Timmothy8
La la la la la la la. I don''t listen to facts. La la la la la la la.La la la la la la la.La la la la la la la.La la la la la la la.La la la la la la la.La la la la la la la.La la la la la la la.
Posted by doorgunner2
He''s basically a generic Dem ticket and this country seems to be tilted too far Right for the times.
But neither party seems to see merit in the others'' ideology, which is so frustrating - it''s like we have to choose between unchecked spending Robin Hood, or laissez-faire Marie Antoinette (let them eat cake) . . . you can''t have unity when you don''t see value in the other . . .
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