Yes, the new just-released poll gives Obama a 10-point, 53-43 lead — the largest this poll has yet shown. But that’s just the beginning of the bad news for John McCain. Here’s the summary:
A tornado of economic discontent is buffeting the nation, sending satisfaction with the country’s direction to a 35-year low, George W. Bush’s approval rating below Richard Nixon’s worst – and Barack Obama, boosted by economic empathy, to his best-yet advantage in the presidential race.
Given the global economic crisis, a record 90 percent of registered voters say the country is seriously off on the wrong track, the most since this question first was asked in 1973. At 23 percent, Bush’s job approval rating has fallen below Nixon’s lowest; it’s a point away from the lowest in 70 years of polling, set by Harry Truman in early 1952. Bush’s disapproval, meanwhile, is at an all-time record – 73 percent.
There’s lots to read, and you can see the details at this link (pdf). I liked the bit about how the percentage of voters who say that McCain is talking mostly about his opponent as opposed to the issues has skyrocketed, while it’s decreased a bit for Obama. Also of note:
The debates also seem to have helped Obama; 32 percent say they have a better opinion of him as a result of the two debates so far, vs. just 8 percent worse. For McCain it’s 12 percent better, 26 percent worse. Their third and final debate is Wednesday.
One apparent result of these factors is a drop in McCain’s favorability rating, to 52 percent, a loss of 7 points since the Republican convention; 45 percent now see him unfavorably, a new high for McCain in polls since 1999. Obama’s rating, meanwhile, is 64 percent favorable, near its high and up 6 points in the same time frame.
The news could hardly be worse for McCain. No wonder GOoPers are freaked.
Gerald Fitzgerald!
I googled them, but all I came with is that one is a character in a series of SciFi books, and the other one was a leader in the 16th-century Irish Rebellion.
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p>Some kind of in-joke?
The right wing rumor is that Patrick Fitzgerald, of Scooter Libby fame, is going to bring down ACORN, exposing Obama as a vote-rigging friend of terrorists. These are the same people with the mythological “get whitey” tapes, the evidence for the falsified birth certificate, and the Sinclair story.
I am soooo sick of these whackos getting any kind of traction, when they evidence that they present is based on speculation rather than facts. The inmates are truly running the asylum.
A person whom the right wing likes to label as a liberal NY Times columnist, but the professor of economics at Princeton is obviously far more than that.
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