A new CBS News-New York Times poll shows Barack Obama heads into tomorrow night’s third and final debate with a 14-point lead over John McCain. 53% of likely voters prefer the Obama/Biden ticket, 39% prefer McCain/Palin. This is a huge jump; before last week’s debate, the Democratic ticket held a 3-point lead in this poll.
Several factors are involved. Obama has opened up a significant lead among independent voters, who have swung back and forth in their support. More voters are confident of Obama’s ability to deal with the economy. And while all his numbers are favorable, McCain’s negatives have increased.
He seems to be shooting himself in the foot. “21% of voters say they have changed their opinion of McCain for the worse in the last few weeks, citing his negative attacks and his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate.” With respect to the campaigns’ overall tones, the number who say McCain is spending more time than Obama attacking the other is up by 8%.
And likely voters who have made a choice plan to stick with it. “More than four out of five of each candidate’s supporters now say their minds are made up and won’t change before the election.”
For poll wonk(ette)s like me, the entire 20-page poll, covering issues, candidates and perceptions, can be found in pdf format here.
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Great entry.
Thanks.
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You’re welcome. As you know, there are polls nearly every day and less extensive CBS/NYT polls but this one is worthy of mention, in my opinion, because of its depth and methodology.
McCain might have picked up some traction from the debate. I see in the electoral vote widget in my sidebar that 15 votes are tied. It had been at 11 then there were no ties a few days ago.