White House hopeful Barack Obama reversed a Republican surge and bounded into the lead on Thursday in national polls swayed by the financial crisis and signs that Sarah Palin’s star may be dimming.
The Democratic candidate, who has been lacerating McCain over his capacity to rescue the Unite States economy, led 49% to 45% in a new poll of likely voters nationwide by Quinnipiac University.
In a CBS/New York Times survey, Obama was up by 48% to 43%, with the race apparently reverting to the narrow Democratic ascendancy seen before two presidential nominating conventions.
The trend was confirmed in Gallup’s daily tracking poll, which had Obama ahead 48% to 44%, the first time in two weeks that the Illinois senator had a lead beyond the statistical margin of error.
A Pew Research poll out Thursday had Obama on 46% and McCain on 44%, while Rasmussen’s daily poll had the contest at a 48% tie nationwide ahead of the November 4 election, but again the trend was towards Obama, who had trailed by three points just three days ago.
Obama’s momentum set the stage for the first of three one-on-one presidential debates with McCain, which begin next week and may represent the last chance for one of the candidates to cement a lead in the tight race.
McCain’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate electrified the conservative base and pushed the Republican into the lead in polls, spreading panic among some Democrats.
But Palin’s momentum seems to be diminishing.
”Senator Obama is right back where he was before the so-called convention bounces with a four-point lead,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University polling institute.
”The Democratic discombobulation after the selection of Governor Palin as running mate seems to be steadying.”
With economic turmoil ricocheting around the world, the Quinnipiac survey suggested that economic arguments may be swaying support towards Obama.
In the poll, 51% said that McCain’s proposed tax cut will help the rich while only 9% say it will aid the middle class. Thirty-three percent say Obama’s tax plans will help the middle class and only 9% say it will benefit the rich.
The Quinnipiac poll showed that Obama led 54 40 percent among women voters, the key demographic which Palin is targeting for Republicans.
Though Obama has the edge on the national stage, another fresh survey by CNN/Time magazine/Opinion Research Corporation had the two candidates virtually tied in five pivotal states: Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Obama and McCain on Thursday renewed their battle over the global credit crisis, after central banks injected more than $300-billion into the markets and pressure mounted on Morgan Stanley and Swiss bank UBS.
McCain branded Obama’s tax policies ”just plain dumb” while his rival accused him of ”rants”, a failure to offer solutions and policy reversals amid the crisis.
Obama said that he would hold talks in Florida on Friday with his key economic advisers to map a way out of the tumult.
McCain, meanwhile, rolled out a plan for a trust to rescue troubled companies before they become insolvent. — AFP
