New Poll Puts Bush On Top

Al Gore and George W. Bush are very close in national polls, with a new one giving Bush an advantage, based largely on his appeal among men and married women.

Bush led Gore 48 percent to 42 percent among likely voters - based on his strength on personal traits, and despite Gore's higher marks on every issue except the military - according to The Los Angeles Times poll released Wednesday.

The Texas governor led among independents, 46 percent to 35 percent, and had a slight edge on honesty and integrity as well as being considered more personally likable.

Bush has focused recently on questioning the vice president's honesty and credibility. Mini-controversies erupted over Gore's mention of a union song he said was sung to him as a lullaby, but hadn't been written at the time, and about his story about his mother-in-law having to pay more than it costs to buy his dog the same arthritis medicine.

Gov. Bush holds an overwhelmingly 78-14 point lead among the 18 percent of likely voters who said character was more important than the issues, and among the 23 percent who said each were equally important, 62-29. Gore led among the remainder who said issues were most important, 55-35.

Gore is now running even with Bush on character measures like strong leadership and "sharing my moral values." The Democrat trailed Bush on most personal characteristics before the political conventions.

Two tracking polls, by CNN-USA Today-Gallup and Voter.com Battleground, show the race nationally within the margin of error.

The close national contest has made the race in battleground states all the more important as the candidates fight for electoral votes.

In the key state of Michigan, Gore is hanging onto a slim lead because of heavy backing by union voters. Gore is also seen as running a more positive campaign than his Republican rival in this state with 18 electoral votes.

Gore led Bush, 45 percent to 41 percent, in Michigan in a new CBS News/New York Times poll of likely Michigan voters released Tuesday.

Gore held almost a 2-to-1 lead among union members, 56 percent to 29 percent, who make up almost a third of Michigan's likely voters, according to the poll. Bush held a 46-41 advantage among those who are not union members.

Michigan's likely voters said they see Gore's campaign as more positive than Bush's - with two-thirds saying the Gore campaign spends most of the time explaining its position on issues, while about one in five said he spent most of the time attacking his opponent. They were about evenly divided on whether the Bush campaign spends more time criticizing Gore or explaining its positions.

People were split on whether Bush's campaign ads make them feel more or less positively toward him, while they felt more positively toward Gore because of his ads by 31 percent to 19 percent.
The CBS-Times poll of 1,005 likely Michigan voters was taken Sept. 22-25 and has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The Los Angeles Times poll contacted 694 likely voters Sept. 23-25 and has a 4 point error margin.

Highlighting the importance of Michigan in the presidential campaign, Gore and Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney both campaigned there Tuesday.

Gore appeared at a town hall meeting with young people in Ann Arbor sponsored by MTV. Cheney challenged Gore's credibility while campaigning in the Detroit suburb of Troy.