Yesterday we showed a number of polls which showed a trend of support for John McCain growing as support for both Democratic candidates has decreased.
Today, a Reuters/Zogby poll is being reported that shows a continuation of that trend.
The latest Reuters/Zogby national poll gives Republican Sen. John McCain leads over both his potential Democratic rivals for the White House.
He's ahead of Obama by 46%-40% and ahead of Clinton 48%-40%.
The poll showed Obama had only a statistically insignificant lead of 47 percent to 44 percent over Clinton, down sharply from a 14 point edge he held over her in February when he was riding the tide of 10 straight victories.
Illinois Sen. Obama, who would be America's first black president, has been buffeted by attacks in recent weeks from New York Sen. Clinton over his fitness to serve as commander-in-chief and by a tempest over racially charged sermons given by his Chicago preacher.
The poll showed Arizona Sen. McCain, who has clinched the Republican presidential nomination, is benefiting from the lengthy campaign battle between Obama and Clinton, who are now battling to win Pennsylvania on April 22.
McCain leads 46 percent to 40 percent in a hypothetical matchup against Obama in the November presidential election, according to the poll.
That is a sharp turnaround from the Reuters/Zogby poll from last month, which showed in a head-to-head matchup that Obama would beat McCain 47 percent to 40 percent.
"The last couple of weeks have taken a toll on Obama and in a general election match-up, on both Democrats," said pollster John Zogby.
Rasmussen Reports' "daily tracking poll" gives McCain a 48%-42% lead over Obama and a 49%-43% lead over Clinton.
For those that continue to insist that the controversial comments made by Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor of 20 years, should not hurt Obama.... what should be and what is, are often two separate things and we can argue all day about whether this does or does not reflect badly on Obama, but the fact of the matter is, in the public opinion polls, it HAS hurt Obama and is continuing to do so.
Obama gave a speech on Tuesday rebuking his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for sermons sometimes laced with inflammatory tirades but said he could not disown him and it was time for Americans to bind the country's racial wounds.[Update]- Gallup is showing that Clinton has a 49% to 42% lead over Barack Obama in national Democratic voters' presidential nomination preference, showing a statistically significant lead, for the first time in over a month/
The poll showed Obama continues to have strong support from the African-American community but that he is experiencing some slippage among moderates and independents.
Among independents, McCain led for the first time in the poll, 46 percent to 36 percent over Obama.
Obama supporters need to realize that what they want, what they believe, is their own beliefs and according to the latest trend, public opinion is not in agreement with them.. in other words, they need to start dealing with the reality instead of "their wants", because neither Democratic candidate has enough delegates to obtain the nomination without the superdelegates and this whole Jeremiah Wright controversy and specifically Obama's refusal to completely distance himself from the "man" and not just the "words of the man", is harming him with moderates and independents.
No matter how stirring Obama's speech was yesterday, it didn't go far enough to dig him out of this hole and has further thrown the Democrats into more disarray.
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