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October 24, 2008

State Polls Show Obama Surge
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Both candidates were on the campaign trail Thursday and focused on the
economy, the number one issue for voters in this year's election 
In the U.S. presidential race, several new surveys in key states show
Democrat Barack Obama surging ahead of his Republican opponent, John Mc
Cain. Both candidates were on the campaign trail Thursday and focused on
the economy - the number-one issue for voters in this year's election.
VOA National Correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama shakes hands at a
rally at American Legion Mall in Indianapolis, Indiana, 23 Oct.
2008Senator Obama took his campaign to Indiana, a Midwest state that
last supported a Democrat for president in the 1964 election. The latest
survey in Indiana, the Big Ten Battleground Poll, gives Obama a 10-point
lead over Senator Mc Cain - 51 percent to 41 percent. But other recent
polls there suggest a tight battle for Indiana's 11 electoral votes. At
a rally in Indianapolis, Obama accused Mc Cain of putting corporations
ahead of workers in his economic plan, and described Mc Cain's approach
as!
  Wall Street first, Main Street last. "We have tried it John Mc Cain's
way," Obama said. "We have tried it George Bush's way. And we are here
to say, ' Enough is enough! We cannot afford four more years of their
fundamental economics.' That is why I am running for President of the
United States, to get an economics that works for you!" Obama will be
taking a break from the campaign trail until Saturday to visit his
ailing 85-year-old grandmother in Hawaii. John Mc Cain greets supporters
at rally in Ormond Beach, Florida, 23 Oct 2008Despite the daunting poll
numbers nationally and in individual key states, Republican John Mc Cain
continued to hammer away at Obama's economic plan, especially the issue
of taxes. Mc Cain built a campaign bus tour through Florida around the
man known as "Joe the plumber". Joe is an Ohio plumber who challenged
Obama's tax proposals during an encounter with Obama on the campaign
trail. Mc Cain says Obama's plan is a thinly veiled attempt to spread
the wealth - taking from the rich and giving to the poor. "We need 
to win on November 4, and we are going to win. We are going to win
Florida and bring real change to Washington, D.C.," Mc Cain said. The
latest Quinnipiac University poll gives Obama a five-point lead in
Florida, a state won by President Bush in the last two elections. In
total, the Quinnipiac and Big Ten Battleground state polls show Obama
surging to sizeable leads in several key states including Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Nationally, Obama has
an average lead of about seven points, according to the website Real
Clear Politics.com. Mc Cain was also busy defending his vice
presidential running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, on national
television. Recent polls suggest that while Palin has energized some
social conservative voters, she is hurting Mc Cain with independents and
moderates. Sarah Palin campaigns in Columbus, Ohio, 29 Sept. 2008Mc Cain
appeared with Palin in an interview with NBC News. "I am overjoyed to
have a person who is a real reformer," Mc Cain said. "I see all these
attacks on Governor Palin. I do not live in a bubble. But those people
are either not paying attention to or do not care about the record of
the most popular governor in the United States of America." A growing
number of political analysts note that Obama is holding a steady lead in
the U.S. presidential race. And they see fewer opportunities for Mc Cain
to close the gap in the final days of the campaign."Democrats are still
winning the enthusiasm game," said Karlyn Bowman, who monitors U.S.
public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "They
are winning the money [i.e., fundraising] game. They won the recruitment
game in terms of congressional and senatorial contests. And they now
have the advantage on most issues, particularly the economy - the top
issue that voters care about. And they have a candidate whom more and
more Americans feel good about." Both candidates will target the same
relatively small group of states, known as swing or battleground states,
in the fi
nal days of the campaign. These are states like Ohio, Florida and
Missouri that often hold the balance in the state-by-state electoral
vote tally that decides who becomes president. 


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