Oct 31
Poll shows Obama nipping at McCain in SD
By Denise Ross
Last I’d heard, McCain had a 7-point lead on Obama here in dear ol’ SD. Now there’s a poll done by the Tim Johnson campaign that shows it at either a 5-point difference, or a 4-point difference - as it appears there might have been a typo in tallying the results.
The summary shows Obama getting 40 percent of the vote, McCain 45 percent, Nader 4 and “other candidate,” 1. The remaining 10 percent are undecided, which seems high, but there you have it.
In the breakdown of the questions, however, it shows that 42 % of respondents said they would definitely vote for McCain, and another 2 % said they were leaning that way. Now, journalists are notoriously lousy at math, but I’m pretty sure that adds up to 44. (Obama had 39 % definite votes and 1 % leaners.)
It’s also possible that, when rounding, the combined 42 and 2 had extra after the decimals that pushed the total up to 45. In any case, then, McCain has a weak 5-point lead according to this poll, no?
Read it all here (scroll down to page 3 for the McCain-Obama numbers.)
This was leaked to a blogger at The Atlantic (The Atlantic!?), where it is seen as evidence of McCain’s weak performance out here in rural America.
This, in a state won by President George W. Bush by 21 percentage points (80,000 votes) in 2004.
The poll oversampled Republicans by two points and found that 45% of its sample considered themselves conservative.
I’ve seen Obama supporters grinning from ear-to-ear for a few weeks now. Is it possible that the Democrat could take the Rushmore State? Or would getting as close as this poll shows still constitute some form of victory for the previously-frequently down-trodden SD Dems?
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I was one of those Hillary supporters who swore never to vote for Obama. No experience and no record! And, he took the nomination from the Clintons. Too bad Bill couldn’t have run for a third term.
But given our choice and McCain’s positions, especially on ethanol and farm legislation, someone from South Dakota would be crazy to vote for McCain. Expect Hildy to go after Thune for supporting McCain in an election in couple of years.
Hildy definately deserves some of the credit for Obama’s success. He is on a roll these days and he sure knows how to punch McCain’s buttons. Nothing like losing a campaign to bring somone back to earth, give one a little humility, and put them back on the winning side of things. Hildy deserves this one. I was in Iowa to observe the caucuses and you could see the fire in Hildy even back then. Congrats Hildy. You deserve this one.