Why Are Obama and McCain Tied in the Polls?

Eric Kleefeld on Talking Points Memo reviews the latest polls:
It’s starting to look like the presidential race is narrowing once more. The latest Rasmussen tracking poll now has a nearly-tied race at Obama 47%, McCain 46%, the latest national poll showing the race to be practically even.
Rasmussen also registered a dead-even tie yesterday of 46%-46%, after Barack Obama had previously held a steady five-point lead for several weeks.
This is on top of the Newsweek poll from last week, which showed Obama’s lead shrinking from 15 points to a mere three. The Gallup poll also has Obama up by three points.
The 2000 presidential election should not have been close. The 2004 election should not have been close. This election should not be close.
UPDATE: Tonight on MSNBC, David Shuster referred to Newsweek’s poll numbers as evidence that Obama’s sudden swerve to the right on so many issues hurt his credibility with independent voters, which explains the current standings. McCain now leads with independents 41-34 percent, with 25 percent undecided.
UPDATE: The new Quinnipiac poll gives Barack Obama a 50%-41% lead over John McCain among likely voters, beyond the ±2.4% margin of error.
Richard Warnick




July 14th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Simple answer to the simple question of this post:
Failure of the Democrats to differentiate themselves.
July 14th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Or to field a decent candidate.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
The dialectic at work, Hegelian that is.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:19 am
The media, at the behest of the PTB, need to provide the sense that it is a close race so that manipulating the Diebold technology won’t look quite like the crime that it will be.