The latest Gallup Daily Tracking poll continues to show that neither Democratic Sen. Barack Obama or Republican Sen. John McCain has shaken up the race enough to take a significant lead — a finding notable in other polls as well. Obama has a 5 percent lead, but the race appears basically deadlocked.
Gallup reports:
The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update finds Barack Obama with a 47% to 42% lead over John McCain, when registered voters are asked for whom they would vote if the presidential election were held today.
These results are based on a three-day rolling average of interviews conducted Aug. 6-8, with Gallup polling roughly 900 registered voters nationwide each night. The numbers for each of these nights have been similar, suggesting preferences are stable.
Rasmussen doesn’t see any politically seismic shifts, either:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that the race for the White House is tied—Barack Obama and John McCain each attract 44% of the vote. When “leaners” are included, it’s McCain 47% and Obama 46%. With leaners, the candidates have been within one point of each other for nine straight days….
McCain leads by nineteen points among White Men and by eight points among White Women. Obama leads 94% to 5% among African-American voters and by twenty-one points among Hispanic voters…..
McCain is currently viewed favorably by 54% of the nation’s voters, Obama by 53%. …Voters see stark differences between Obama and McCain on two key issues of Election 2008—Iraq and Energy.
As always, it’s important to put these polls into context by going to THIS PAGE on Pollster.com and look at how these numbers compare to other polls.
If you look at Pollster’s overall polling chart, you can see how Obama has begun to slightly dip — and McCain has begun to quickly rise:
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.