Poll Shows Nine Percent Obama Lead Drops to Three, McCain Coming Back

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 30, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Poll Shows Nine Percent Obama Lead Drops to Three, McCain Coming Back

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 30
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Another new poll shows the lead Barack Obama built up during the last two weeks has evaporated. A Fox News/Opinion Dynamics survey shows the nine-point advantage pro-abortion candidate Barack Obama had over John McCain has narrowed to just three percent.

Obama led McCain by a 49-40 percentage point margin last week but that has dropped to a 47-44 percent lead.

Though the race has tightened and pro-life voters are more energized now than before, Obama supporters have an advantage the poll shows.

Among likely voters 88 percent of Obama backers say they "strongly" support Obama compared to 78 percent who say the same for McCain. A higher 22 percent of McCain backers say they support him "somewhat" compared with 12 percent who back Obama slightly.

In addition, 66 percent of Obama supporters say it is "extremely important" that their candidate win compared with 59 percent of McCain supporters who feel the same way.

The Fox News poll shows the race tightening because independent voters are less favorable to Obama — dropping to a five point advantage this week from a nine point advantage last week.

Similarly, Obama held an 11-point lead with Catholics last week and that has dropped to a 46-46 percent split now.
"Independent voters have long been regarded as one of the keys to this race and these results may foreshadow a tightening in the battleground states where independents carry disproportionate weight," Ernie Paicopolos, of Opinion Dynamics Corporation, told Fox News.

The numbers have also tightened because McCain has improved himself with Republican voters and now enjoys the backing of 88 percent of Republican voters (up from 83 percent last week) though 89 percent of Democrats back Obama.

In a possible preview of the election results, Obama holds a 52-43 advantage over McCain among voters who have already cast their ballots — meaning McCain needs strong support on election day to catch up.

The poll also shows that voters believe McCain has more experience to be president — 78 to 49 percent — but voters give the advantage on the economy to Obama and appear to be more interested in "change" than experience.

Change voters back Obama by a 79-13 percent margin while values voters back McCain by 63-28 percent.

The poll found that 43 percent of voters believe Obama’s views are too liberal — meaning the work pro-life groups have done to expose his pro-abortion record is paying some dividends.

The Fox News survey also found voters are more likely to say pro-abortion running mate Joe Biden is ready to be president than pro-life running mate Sarah Palin.

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