Poll Watch
By SusanUnPC on July 24, 2008 at 12:30 PM in Barack Obama, Electability, Electoral College, Iraq, John McCain, Michigan, National Security
McCain Makes Significant Gains in Four Key Battleground States, Washington Post:
Republican John McCain has quickly closed the gap between himself and Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama in several key battleground states even as the Arizona senator struggles to break through the wall-to-wall coverage of Obama’s trip to Europe and the Middle East this week.
McCain and Obama are in a statistical dead heat in Colorado, Michigan and Minnesota while the Illinois senator has a more comfortable double-digit edge in Wisconsin. …
63% Say Trip Does Not Make Obama More Fit to be President, Rasmussen Reports:
While Barack Obama has touted his travel to the Middle East and Europe this week as a “fact-finding” trip, 63% of Americans do not believe it makes the Democratic candidate any more qualified to be president.
A new Rasmussen Reports national survey, taken Monday night, also finds that less than a third (32%) think Obama will learn from his trip to Iraq. Forty percent (40%) say his mind is already made up about policies to deal with the war there. The Democrat has been accused by liberals in his party of softening his long-standing opposition to the war in Iraq in an effort to appeal to more moderate voters. …
Here’s much more from Rasmussen’s fascinating report:
In a separate survey this week, 45% said Obama is too inexperienced to be president. This number has risen from 41% over the past week. But the same number — 45% — believe the Democratic candidate does have the necessary experience.
Slightly more than half (53%) of Americans in the new poll do not approve of candidates making statements contrary to U.S. government policy while visiting U.S. troops in a war zone. Only 29% believe that it’s okay to do so.
But 49% say it’s fine for a presidential candidate to make a highly-publicized trip to a war zone, while only 26% disagree.
Less than half (47%) believe it is better to have a president with military experience directing a war, but 38% say it doesn’t matter. Seventy-three percent (73%) of Republicans see military experience as a plus, but 57% of Democrats do not. Obama has not served in the military, while McCain was a Navy combat pilot in the Vietnam War. He was shot down on a bombing mission, imprisoned and tortured in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” for six years.
Among those who have members of their immediate family in the military, 48% say military service makes a president better able to conduct a war, while 36% disagree.
Another Rasmussen Reports survey this week finds that while voters trust Obama more on most issues, McCain has a double-digit lead on his rival when it comes to national security and the war in Iraq. Overall, Obama and McCain remain very close in the popular vote contest as measured by the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.
Only 39% of Democrats say Obama’s travels this week make him more qualified to be president, while 42% disagree. Eighty-six percent (86%) of Republicans and 67% of unaffiliateds feel the same way. The gap widens when how an individual plans to vote is factored in: 44% of likely Obama voters see the travel as a positive, while 89% of those who plan to vote for McCain disagree. …
READ ALL: 63% Say Trip Does Not Make Obama More Fit to be President, Rasmussen Reports.

















