Voter preferences had been fairly evenly divided for the past week, with Obama generally holding a slight advantage of two or three percentage points. This is the first time since Gallup's May 31-June 4 rolling average that Obama does not have at least a slim advantage over McCain. Obama's largest lead to date has been seven points.
Different polls say different things but since I have been consistently quoting Gallup, this is important for multiple reasons.
The touted "bounce" that was expected for Obama after Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign never materialized as Obama has made some recent decisions and made statements that have, offended Muslims, outraged members of the progressive blogosphere on FISA, and brought media editorials down harder than ever about Public finacing and he has generally been crucified by his own supporters, as shown in my previous post here.
This adds up and had Obama on the defensive.
There is no clear indicator if this latest poll is representative of a shift for McCain or simply a leveling out of the so-called bounce, but Gallup does these polls daily so watching the trend should answer that within the next month.
Other Gallup results are just as interesting.
Commander in Chief:
John McCain's life experience has earned him a solid national reputation as someone who can serve as the nation's commander in chief, with 80% saying he can handle the responsibilities of this important role. Barack Obama lags well behind on the same measure, but does pass the 50% public confidence threshold.
Military Ability.
The question:
"Do you think ___________ can or cannot handle the responsibilities of Commander and Chief of the Military?
The answers:
80 Percent picked John McCain
55 percent picked Barack Obama
The video can be found here.
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