National Poll: McCain Climbing, Obama Losing Support and Under 50 Percent
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 26, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new national poll shows the tide turning in the presidential race with John McCain posting gains over each of the last four days and Barack Obama losing ground during the same period. The Zogby poll shows McCain improving from a 52 to 40 deficit to running behind the pro-abortion candidate by only a 5.3 percentage point margin.
The number of undecided voters dropped from 7.5 to 6.6 percent during the last four days, meaning McCain has picked up some Obama supporters and a chance to build on that gain with undecided voters.
Pollster John Zogby, who has been one of the most accurate in prior election contests, said the McCain turnaround of nearly 7 percent shows the campaign is still wide open.
“There is no question that this race continues to tighten and that McCain is finding his message again,” Zogby said in comments associated with the Saturday poll.
The pollster said McCain needs to stay on message and focus on the policy differences between him and Obama rather than worrying about sidebar complaints about Obama.
“It is after all about the economy and that is how McCain tightened it up the last time. I have said over and over again, when he focuses on extraneous issues, he screws up,” Zogby explained.
Zogby said the race could actually be closer than the 5-point lead the tracking poll shows as the single day of polling on Saturday shows McCain gaining even more ground and poised to make the race a tie early this coming week.
“In today’s single day of polling, it was 49% to 46% in favor of Obama,” Zogby said. “McCain has moved his own numbers each of the three days and Obama has gone down from 54% to 50% to 49%.”
Because Obama is back under 50 percent, Zogby says that means the conclusion can’t be drawn that Obama has put the campaign away and made it beyond McCain’s reach.
“I have alluded before to this strange, magnetic pull that brings Obama down to 48% or 49%, a danger zone for him. McCain’s gains are among white voters, where he now leads by 12 points, and with men, where he again has a healthy lead,” Zogby says.
“There is still a lot of campaign to go. A lot of campaign to go,” the pollster concluded.
Obama continues to win a significant 19% slice of the conservative vote meaning pro-life advocates still need to convince pro-life voters to stay with McCain.
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