Obama gains more ground in the polls

CNN's main stories, even after the debate tonight, deal with Barack Obama's lead in the polls. Since taking a hit for the failure of the first bailout bill, McCain has been losing favor and is hoping to win it back in the town hall-style debate. Whether or not he has done so remains to be seen; in Thursday's post I intend to take a look at CNN's framing of the debate and see how other media giants are talking about it.

There were some astonishing numbers in CNN's polls. I realized that McCain lost some serious footage when the bailout bill he vigorously supported went down the drain, but the most recent numbers show a dramatic drop in the public's faith in McCain's abilities.

"The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out Monday afternoon suggests that the country's financial crisis, record low approval ratings for President Bush and a drop in the public's perception of McCain's running mate could be contributing to Obama's gains."

Many people now see McCain as unfit to deal with the economy after he suspended his campaign to support the bailout, which was ultimately killed by members of his own party. Approval ratings for Bush are so low they have now tied Nixon's, and are only a couple points away from Harry Truman's record low of 22%. This hurts McCain's campaign because "a growing number of Americans believe the Republican presidential nominee would have the same policies as the current Republican president. Fifty-six percent say McCain's policies would be the same as Bush, up from 50 percent a month ago." Also, public approval ratings of Palin have dropped considerably-- " Forty percent now have an unfavorable view of Palin, up from 27 percent a month ago and from 21 percent in late August."

The numbers here certainly lean in Obama's favor, but is CNN excluding McCain's strong points? They have included a couple, but it's difficult to tell what is being left out here.

	McCain	Obama
Who would better handle the war in Iraq?	46%	51%
Who would better handle the economy?	37%	57%
Financial crisis?	36%	53%
Health care?	33%	60%
Terrorism?	54%	44%
Overall favorable rating?	54%	62%
Who has better experience to be president?	54%	36%

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Steinhauser, Paul. " Poll: Obama seen as more compassionate than McCain." CNN.com. 7 Oct. 2008. CNN. 11:30pm, 7 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/07/compassion.poll/index.html>.

Steinhauser, Paul. " Obama widens lead in national poll." CNN.com. 7 Oct. 2008. CNN. 11:30pm, 7 Oct 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/06/poll.of.polls/index.html>.