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November 01, 2008
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Saturday
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Ziqa'ad 2, 1429
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Obama retains lead
WASHINGTON, Oct 31: Democrat Barack Obama’s lead over Republican rival John McCain held steady at 7 points as the race for the White House entered its final four days, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Friday.
Obama leads McCain by 50 per cent to 43 per cent among likely voters in the three-day national tracking poll, virtually unchanged from Thursday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points. “Essentially there is no difference in today’s tracking,” pollster John Zogby said. “Obama is holding firm and McCain is not making any gains.”
It was the second consecutive day Obama’s support has hit the 50 per cent mark, and the eighth day out of the last 11.
McCain’s support has not surpassed 45 per cent in more than three weeks of polling.
The Illinois senator held steady among several crucial blocs of swing voters in the Nov 4 election, leading by 15 points among independents, 9 points among women, 5 points among men and 9 points among Catholics.
Obama led in every age group and among every income group except voters who make more than $100,000. McCain, a former Navy fighter pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, trails among voters with a member of the military in their family.
McCain also was winning only 26 per cent of Hispanics, a fast-growing group that gave Republican President Bush more than 40 per cent of their vote in 2004.“If you are John McCain you want to see something start changing in this race, and right now it is not,” Zogby said.
Obama has led McCain in every national opinion poll for weeks, and McCain also trails in many of the key battleground states including Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.
McCain was on a bus tour of Ohio and Obama was in Florida, Virginia and Missouri on Thursday, trying to drum up turnout and win over undecided voters in some of about a dozen states that will decide the race.
Independent Ralph Nader received 2 per cent in the national survey, and Libertarian Bob Barr was at 1 per cent. About 2 per cent of voters remain undecided.—Reuters
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