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Poll: Obama Winning Over Groups Once Reluctant To Back Him

The new Newsweek poll, which finds Obama leading McCain by 52%-41% among registered voters, also finds some serious movement among voter groups that had been reluctant to back the Illinios Senator in the past:

He now leads McCain among both men (54 percent to 40 percent) and women (50 percent to 41 percent). He now wins every age group of voters -- including those over 65 years of age, who back him over McCain 49 to 43 percent. Supporters of Hillary Clinton, as many as a fifth of whom had at one point told pollsters they'd support McCain over Obama, now back the Democratic nominee 88 percent to 7 percent.

McCain still retains a slight edge of two points among independents, 45%-43%. But Obama is winning on the character front. His favorability ratings have actually edged up, from 57% to 60%, while his unfavorability rating has dropped a point, to 36%.

Meanwhile, McCain's favorability rating has dropped six points to 51%. And 59% say Obama shares their values, versus only 47% for McCain. So McCain's efforts to paint Obama as culturally out of touch, allied with shadowy figures, including terrorists, and different from you and me in a vaguely sinister way just may be proving to be a bust.


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THIS..

IS...

EXCELLENT

NEWS!!

FOR

MCCAIN!!!!!

GREAT...

Obama's got a bigger lead among men than women? Either this poll is CRAY-ZEE or this is a goddamn tsunami realignment.

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Yeah, I can't figure that out, nor does it make sense that Obama can be leading by so much without also leading among Independents, unless there has been a HUGE shift of people identifying as GOP now self ID'ing as Independents.

Here's the breakdown from the poll internals:
Tot RV Party
25 27 Republican
38 40 Democrat
30 30 Independent

So between Bush and McCain, it looks like the GOP brand has been destroyed. 25% is smaller than Ross Perot was polling at his peak in the Summer of 1992. The GOP has officially attained minor party status.

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Does this mean that Ralph Nader will finally shut up about the duopoly having a stranglehold on political power?

I believe that it is not surprising that Obama now leads McCain among men. Even though we are mostly a two income household middle class, men still have primary breadwinner tattooed in their dna. They have just watched the collapse of the laizzez faire brand economic policy espoused by the Republican Party since the Gipper and they are terrified that they won't be able to provide for their children. They are going to vote for the candidate that they believe will make it easier to provide for their families during times of distress.

This is what realignment looks like.

Thanks, Greg, for highlighting the "shares my values" crosstab. That's really key, because it reveals that people are starting to think about "values" a little more broadly. The timing of this economic crisis, following on eight years of a broader moral disaster, has pushed people over the edge. They've decided that they don't really give a crap anymore whether you eat arugula, or have gay friends, or smoke your cigarette in a long cigarette-holder, as long as you're serious about respecting the Constitution and using our collective power to HELP the little guy.

Happy days are here again!

I don't know, I'm still a bit troubled by arugula. What's next, radicchio? Butter lettuce? Dandelion leaves!?!

What do we REALLY know about Obama's roughage intake?

Seriously, this is great. I love to see the polls in the high readership mags come back with these big splits. That's when I feel you can start to pull those late deciders who vote on momentum and the desire to pull the lever for the winner. A great way to start to the weekend for those of us in the reality-based community (now an apparent majority of registered voters!).

I agree.

Unfortunately, however, Palin and her tribe don't read those magazines or any newspaper, so their seething hoards are sequestered from much of this ferment.

Thing is, "the shares my values"/ "understands my problems"/ "cares about people like me" number has ALWAYS been vastly in Obama's favor - this whole cycle.

Maybe the #1 underreported true fact of this campaign.

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Yes, because Americans as so stupid that we share our values with Obama and not the wacky right.

;)

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I'm going to do an informal survey of mcShame signs in the neighborhood. The question being:

When do people feel embarrassed by a sign with Palin's name on it in front of their house?

This will be telling, I predict.

Well, I bet the five houses next to mine will have theirs up *at least* thru the election, if not for weeks afterwards...dead-enders all of them.

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Landslide a comin! Look out.

It also looks like Dems will also get 60 plus senate seats without traitor joe. The american people have their backs for two years and they better shake things up and get us back on track or they will lose that senate fillabuster proof majority in two years. Or, at least they better start getting us headed in the right direction.

We may finally be coming out of the wilderness. I really can't believe it.

Greg,
This is an old news. We, Acamus and I, posted this yesterday.

I too was surprised by this- just because earlier polling showed men lagging women in support for Obama.
But, hey-a lady in power who uses her position to browbeat her subordinates in a vendetta against an ex-brother-in-law? That's likely to resonate with the menfolk.

McCain still retains a slight edge of two points among independents, 45%-43%.

Why, oh why?

It is a commonsense that no one leads by 11 points nationally if you are trailing among the independent demography. McCain's lead among the independents is a gross error unless conservatives are ashamed of calling themselves Republicans and have decided to go by independents, which is in all likelihood a possibility, looking at the well-noted record of not one prominent party member mentioning "Republican Party" at their National Convention speeches.

An Independent is really just a Republican obsessed with his/her own intelligence.

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Damn comments system.

I question their findings on independents favoring McCain over Obama. I think this is the first poll I've seen with this finding. Though the Newsweek article does go on to explain that as a tsunami victory for the Democrats takes shape, people who formerly self-identified as independent may now be self-identifying as Democrats.

By far the biggest surprise is the finding that Obama is winning in the over 65 age group. This is momentous and stupendous. My one prediction all along has been that he would not win this age group. I had assumed that racial attitudes were too ingrained with these folks for Obama to win a majority of them - but I'll be happy to be proven wrong. Perhaps watching their savings of a lifetime evaporate before their eyes has been the final push some of them needed to get beyond the bad habits of a lifetime.

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This morning is the first morning where Obama leads the over 60 group in the R2K internals. I've been watching that for some time. For a while, many elders were on the fence. Now, they've moved. And Obama is ahead in those internals by a thread. I predict that thread will increase as this Palin news gets out more.

It's the makings of a landslide. The media can stir the pot all they want, but if there is no chicken in the pot, folks won't buy it! (too many are hurting financially to be swayed by the media's desire to juice the race)

Now he finds himself standing in a room full of people he doesn't respect wondering where those who respected him have gone.

Bingo! Largely similar to what I wrote to Josh last nite...

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Independents for McCain has been seen in other polls. It's because some Reps are have moved to Indepenedant, and some Inds have moved to Dem, so the makeup of the Independents is much more Rep leaning than it was before.

What about McCain and/or Palin's unfavorability scores? Anyone have those? I keep hearing that they have gone way up.

Acamus posted this yesterday at 7:25 pm on the other thread, "McCain Says No Need To Fear Obama...":
Fav to Unfav
Obama +24
Biden +28
McCain +6
Palin +4

My post on the same thread at 7:58 pm yesterday highlights exactly the same as Greg does above.

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I question their findings on independents favoring McCain over Obama.

Good morning - at this point I question findings showing anyone other than idiots who think Obama is an Arab favoring McLame.

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Wow - Bob Shrum finally asks the magic question of McLame:
Sir, have you no decency left?

I love it.

Wasn't that spoken by a Bush who had character this one totally lacks?

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No - it was said to Joe McCarthy in a HUAC witchhunt hearing.

I can't remember who asked him - but he said: "Do you have no decency, sir? At long last, do you have no decency?"

That was the crowning blow to HUAC and McCarthy and his hideously anti-American shit.


It was Joseph Welch, attorney for the Army in their hearings with McCarthy:

"Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"


Perhaps that because John McCain has been Linked to 60’s ‘Erraticals’
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=3885

sarah palin is on msnbc right now and she just said, and I am not making this up, "john mccain will fight abuse of power." First off, do they even read this before saying it? Second, is he gonna fight her off the ticket?

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That is the weirdest campaign of all time. That's all I can say - it's just surreal.

So she admits it?

Were it not for the financial situation, I would be celebrating early...

She's betting people will only read the part that says she was within her right as governor to fire anyone without reason.

I thought, well, there it is. A group of 12 Alaskan legislators, you know people ELECTED by Alaskans, republicans and democrats came together, took a look at the evidence and say “Yeah she is guilty all right, she did it“. She has used here power to pick on other people, she is a bully without the common sense to know the difference between right, wrong or just plain old fairness and to top it off. She lied over and over about it to cover her own rear end.

I thought that would pretty much end the argument right there. What could they say to that? Who would be crazy enough to stand up to that and do what? This is a classic “hand in the cookie jar” moment. No arguments, I have eyes and there you are, in bed with someone else. This isn’t a hint, a tell or suggestion, these are facts now. Go on admit your guilt already.

I forgot that John McCain new this when he “vetted” her. I forgot John McCain new this when their “souls” touched and they felt each others “maverickness”. I forgot that when the presidential bug , the quest for power, has gotten this deep into a persons being that facts no longer matter. That country doesn’t matter, that the truth doesn’t matter. That nothing matters but Me, ME JOHN MCCAIN, ME SARAH PALIN, that is all that matters.

This is what the spin people, the professional talking heads, are for. From “plausible deniability” to today. This is their shining moment to make a more fantastic lie then before and then to repeat it over and over on TV and radio, in print both real and digital. To that I say with all my heart.. Damn you people, Damn you to hell for what you are doing and will do under the weakest of “its my job” excuses.

“Mavericks, change, honor, country”???

Are you friggin kidding me?

Ok then America now we really get to see just how stupid we are. Gut check America. Are we hope, are we fairness, are we truth? Or are we really the mob that McCain/Palin thinks we are? Go on take a look at the crowds that support McCain/Palin, look into those faces, listen to those words and decide who we are, decide who you are.

We are going to get what we deserve on this one, that is for sure and for certain.

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Ho hum. Another Republican abuse of power. To the Republican mind, that's what power is for. To reward your friends and to crush your enemies. What's sad is how the last eight years have habituated and desensitized our culture to abuse of power.

I agree that the independents are leaning McCain because people who are ideologically Republican are now identifying themselves as "independent." I know people who are doing exactly this.

I think you're absolutely right. To the yahoos who are screaming "Traitor" and "Off with his head" at the rallies, all this legalistic arguing over ethics and limitations on power is strictly for pussies. (It doesn't help that it involves big words that they don't understand.) The Branchflower report is going to reel the diehard Kool-Aid drinkers back in, not turn them off; it's red meat for the ultra-conservatives who might otherwise sit the election out because they still think McCain is a centrist. Palin was, after all, doing it to protect her family; to quite a lot of people, that makes it noble per se. We can only hope that there aren't enough of them to win the election. Probably not.

Whoops. That was supposed to be a reply to Postxian, one post up. I clicked on the wrong reply link.

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If 47% of Americans say McInsane shares their values, are they saying that they devoid of values and morally rudderless?

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Isn't it sad how people believe what people tout, rather than their own eyes? We need to hammer home the inexcusable bad judgment of mcShame, whose first act as candidate was to take on board a Trojan horse of a running mate. The Trojan Trophy, as it were.

At this point I wonder if attacks from McCain against Obama are seen by many on the fence as an attack on their last remaining hopes for the possibility of getting through this economic crisis without major damage. They may not like Obama but if he is going to be President it doesn't help to have McCain tear him doen and be so divisive.

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Hey - wish CT Voter was here - I just read that Connecticut has ok'd same sex marriage.

Culture war, anyone? Hahahahahaha! Those old Vietnam era reactionaries want to refight this same war they lost once already in the 60s.

They're losing again - even worse.

And the good news is the decision is irreversible and cannot be challenged at the Federal Supreme Court or any other courts.

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I'm thrilled.

Just flat thrilled!

My wife is floored Palin's unethical behavior isn't being reported on more. It's like it was expected and nobody cares anymore about ethics.

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What do you mean, Mike? The Troopergate report findings are in every paper I've looked at.

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Here's a post of mine on that (not here, but at Oxdown):

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/636

Background info, related to Palin, on boundary problems and ethical issues. Worth a read.

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I didn't read it all yet, Thera, but at the outset I'm struck by how very Commander CooCoo that is - to mix up the personal a professional like that.

That's because if they did give it fair and impartial coverage, the race would be over with and there wouldn't be anything to report except Obama's transition team being formed and ready to go on election day.

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He's already formed his transition team - I read a long piece on it and he's had it in place for months. I mean everything is covered - they're just going to walk right in and start governing.

McLame has not done one thing and has told his staff not to do anything about a transition team.

Ya think he knows he's lost?