Last updated on July 1st, 2012 at 07:04 am
Today Fox News and Opinion Dynamics released a new national poll that finds at tight race nationally between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. The poll finds that Obama leads McCain 42%-39%. Ralph Nader gets 4%, and Bob Barr is at 2%. If the names of the candidates are removed and voters are asked if they will vote Democratic or Republican, Democrats lead 42%-35%.
By a margin of 47%-32%, those surveyed believed that Obama will win the White House. The poll also gave McCain and Obama equal 58% approval ratings. I first began to think that there was something fishy about this poll when it gave McCain a 43%-37%% edge over Obama on the issue of trust. I have a difficult time believing the voters trust McCain more than Obama. McCain was trusted more on Iraq, terrorism, and illegal immigration. Obama was trusted more on the economy and healthcare.
Not so surprisingly, the Fox poll found that voters were more concerned about Obama’s youth (43%) than McCain’s age (31%). Most of those surveyed (53%) were still troubled by Obama’s association with Rev. Wright, and 66% of those surveyed said that they didn’t care if a candidate wore a flag lapel pin or not. This poll surveyed 900 registered voters, 379 Democrats and 315 Republicans.
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I don’t think that national polls are very credible right now. People aren’t paying much attention yet. The overall margin in this poll is in line with other polls that show the race as Obama having a slight lead to even. I think the state polls paint a better picture of what is going on in this early phase of the campaign than the national snapshot does.
