A CNN poll of polls shows that the race between Democratic Senator Barack Obama and Republican Senator John McCain for the White House is now a virtual dead heat:
A poll of polls on Thursday showed John McCain and Barack Obama locked in a virtual dead heat as the presidential general election campaign got under way.
Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, held a narrow 2 point lead over his Republican counterpart among registered voters, 47 percent to 45 percent, according to CNN’s average of four recent national polls. Nearly 10 percent said they were undecided.
The polls included in the sample were conducted between May 21 and June 3, all before Obama wrapped up the nomination Tuesday night. The poll of polls included recent surveys from CBS, Gallup, Pew and Newsweek.
The poll of polls does not have a margin of sampling error.
This poll is likely to change — and rather fast — for several reasons.
Now that Senator Hillary Clinton has made it known she’s going to concede to Obama, it’s likely that the next poll will reflect where many of her supporters are going. Will they opt for McCain or as they see their candidate call for unity begin to get behind Obama?
Also: Republican political fire is now going to be aimed more at Obama more than ever — and he will be directing his campaign fire squarely at McCain.
Meanwhile, Real Clear Politics’ average of polls has Obama at 46.7 percent and McCain at 44.5 percent.
Pollster.com offers a bunch of poll numbers on an Obama-McCain match up:
Gallup Poll
National (5/31 to 6/4)
McCain 46, Obama 45National (6/4 only)
Obama 45, McCain 45
Obama/Clinton 50, McCain 45Rasmussen Reports
National
Obama 47, McCain 45Favorable / Unfavorable
McCain 55 / 42
Obama 54 / 43
What will now change will be the specific focus. Media attention — and voter scrutiny — will now be centered squarely on these two Senators and how they compare to each other. Expect to see some poll movement over the next week…one way or another.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.