Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Monday, March 17, 2008 7:37:23 PM
If the election were held today (and yes, we know it won't be), Democratic contender Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would get 51% of the vote to Republican candidate Sen. John McCain's 46%, the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll estimates. In a match-up between Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and McCain, Obama comes out ahead 49%-47%.
Both Democrats have overtaken McCain since the last USA TODAY/Gallup survey. In that Feb. 21-24 poll, McCain led Clinton 50%-46% and he led Obama 48%-47%.
Gallup surveyed 685 "likely" voters across the nation from Friday through Sunday. It says the margin of error on each result is +/- 4 percentage points. That means neither Clinton nor Obama's lead in the new poll is "outside" that margin. Clinton's support could be as low as 47% (because 51-4=47) and McCain's could be as high as 50% (because 46+4=50).
Keep in mind that polls are snapshots of current public opinion, not forecasts of what will happen in November.
John McCain better get busy or he will find himself too far behind to catch up come November. As USA Today says however; these numbers are not forecasts. Keep that in mind and it will help with the sick feeling. As I've repeated ad-nauseum: this is what we get for allowing the media to pick our nominee for us. Just because the D.C. Republican establishment feels it's McCain's turn to be the nominee doesn't mean we should have caved-in to them. The only power those old fools have is the power we loan out to them. If most Americans realized that, most of the current politicians would probably be out of a job. What a lovely daydream come true that would be. Personally, as the days go by it becomes harder and harder for me to see John McCain winning the general election.