Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has just gotten some good polling news amid a slew of downer polls for his Presidential campaign: the latest Gallup Daily tracking poll now shows him narrowing the gap with Democratic Sen. Barack Obama:
The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update of registered voters finds Barack Obama at 48%, and John McCain at 44%, marking a slight narrowing of the race from the eight percentage point margin Obama held earlier this week.
The latest results are based on interviewing conducted Sept. 28-30, a time period in which the American public watched the Dow Jones Industrial Average seesaw between a 700+ point loss and a 400+ point gain on Monday and Tuesday, while attempts by Congress to pass some type of legislation dealing with the financial crisis continued.
Barack Obama has moved to an eight point or higher lead several times since June, including after his foreign trip in July, after the Democratic National Convention, and more recently late last week. In each instance Obama was unable to sustain his lead, and John McCain was able to narrow the gap, as is happening now – to, at least, a modest degree. In addition to continuing action on the part of the Senate and Congress on a financial rescue bill, Thursday’s vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden could potentially have an effect on the horserace.
Look for Palin to do much better in that debate than many have predicted. The reason: expectations for Palin have been leveled to below sea level. She has also basically spent 4 days in a debate camp run by McCain advisers, many of them former Bush campaign operatives. She’ll have lots of info, prepared answers and will have zingers ready to use at the first instance.
Also look for Biden’s words to be carefully vetted by GOPers since a gaffe by him, an inaccuracy or a flip comment will be an opening to shift the debate from the economy to a personality issue again and raise up Palin’s positives by tearing down Biden’s positives. In a sense, the debate tomorrow is more about Biden than Palin.
This poll is further evidence that Obama is far from closing the sale and that. even with the bad economy. Democrats can take nothing for granted and Republicans shouldn’t give up hope just yet.
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.