Obama Trailing McCain in Two Key States
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Florida, McCain, OhioA Quinnipiac University poll found some disturbing news for Barack Obama. Currently, Obama trails John McCain in Florida and Ohio polls by 4-5 percentage points. By itself, the numbers aren’t too bad. But here’s the kicker. The same poll showed Hillary Clinton leading John McCain in those two swing states by 7 percentage points.
In fact, polls show between 26 and 36 percent of Clinton’s supporters would switch to McCain should Obama get the nomination. Only 10 to 18 percent of Obama supporters would switch to McCain if the unlikely happens and Clinton somehow winds up with the nomination.
What’s this mean? Two things. 1) Although Obama leads McCain in national polls, he’s going to be spending a lot of time shoring up support in the swing states. 2) There’s a huge opportunity here for McCain to poach Democratic voters in key states.
As the 2000 election reminded us, the popular vote means nothing. Electoral votes are key. Looks like we’ll be getting a lot of news out of Ohio and Florida again. By now, those two states should be used to it.
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Florida, McCain, Ohio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I am really getting tired of the Clinton supporters saying they will vote McCain if they don’t get their way. Doesn’t that sound just like a child not getting their way and taking their ball and going home. Time to grow up.
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Clearly, I’m not expert when it comes to Presidential election politics and polling. But I tend to look at these the same way I do preseason sports polls. The last I checked, they don’t hand out the hardware based on preseason polls.
May 26th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
In January, Obama supporters loudly proclaimed that they would not vote for Hillary if she was the nominee. Well, looks like the tables are turned: Hillary supporters giving payback. Deal with it.
May 26th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I support Clinton, but I am not neccessarily a Democrat. In fact, usually I’m Republican. So why does it bother Obama supporters if I vote for McCain in November ? Many Republican women actually like Hillary. And if it ain’t her, they’ll pick McCain.