Battleground: Obama widens leads
Posted: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 9:22 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
States
Obama has widened his lead in four new battleground states polled by Quinnipiac/Washingtonpost.com/WSJ. Obama now leads 52%-43% in Colorado; 54%-38% in Michigan; 51%-40% in Minnesota; and 54%-37% in Wisconsin.
Politico/Insider Advantage polls survey four Bush-won counties (2000 and 2004) in battlegrounds Nevada, North Carolina, Florida and Colorado. Obama leads in three.
COLORADO: Undecided voters being tracked by the Denver Post are evaluating both candidates on character and becoming more and more exasperated. "'The more I learn about these candidates, the more fed up I get,' said Gary Jones, 57, a human-resources consultant in Littleton and part of a group of undecided voters… 'I want some specifics, but there aren't any. What I learned in the last debate was that everything was either all George Bush's fault or all the Democratic Congress' fault. That can't be.'"
MAINE: Playing a little offense, Sarah Palin is headed to Maine on Thursday. "If Todd Palin’s down-to-earth, snowmobile-riding personality played well in eastern Maine over the weekend, his wife’s folksy, working mother, moose-hunting affectations are likely to be just as popular, pundits say."
NEVADA: The state’s political guru, Jon Ralston, reported yesterday that Democrats now enjoy a 376-voter lead in traditionally GOP Washoe County. “So now the only red area of the state is where the cows live,” he wrote.
Obama's California supporters are trekking to Nevada to help the campaign there.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: Obama will be in the Granite State on Thursday.
NORTH CAROLINA: Local coverage of McCain's first general-election public event in North Carolina from the News Observer: "McCain is being forced to play defense in North Carolina and in Virginia -- two upper-tier Southern states that have been reliably Republican in recent presidential elections. McCain sent his running mate, Sarah Palin, into North Carolina last week and she is scheduled to return for a fundraiser in Greensboro and a rally at Elon University on Thursday. Plans are being laid for McCain to attend a rally in Charlotte on Saturday."
OHIO: The Boston Globe goes to Northeastern Ohio. "Here, where nearly 5,000 workers produce truckload after truckload of Chevrolet Cobalts and Pontiac G5s, the work keeps growing, and with it hope that US automakers can compete in a radically reshaped global economy… In this environment, the stakes in the presidential election feel somewhat different than they do elsewhere across the industrial Midwest, where voters are seeing their factories close, health insurance evaporate, and livelihoods threatened. That is not to say that there is widespread contentment in Lordstown, because there's not. But interviews with voters suggest less of an urgency about picking a candidate based solely on his ability to solve the country's economic woes."
Cuyahoga County is the latest to make moves to launch an investigation of ACORN.
PENNSYLVANIA: A Marist poll out yesterday shows Obama up 12 points among likely voters, 53%-41%. Last month's poll showed that advantage for the Democratic nominee, at only five points, 49%-44%.
The dean (David Broder) heads to the Keystone State and finds McCain's mission to win Pennsylvania close to being "mission impossible."
VIRGINIA: McCain's stop yesterday was in the state’s most important region: Hampton Roads. "The McCain campaign estimated the crowd at 25,000 people, but the local police and fire marshal put it closer to 12,000. Supporters waved ‘Country First’ signs and handmade posters with the words ‘I Have 4 Hockey Moms and 1 Joe Six Pack for McCain-Palin’ and ‘Trig for First Baby,’ referring to Palin's youngest son. Palin, by far, received the most cheers. ‘Sar-ah!’ they chanted. ‘Sar-ah!’”
“Hampton Roads, a sprawling area of 1.6 million people in 17 localities, includes the state's second-largest metropolitan area and largest city. Virginia's southeastern corner has been a swing area in recent years, veering back and forth between Republicans and Democrats."
