Motley Moose – Archive

Stability is the consistent name of the game this season.  Barack Obama has proven himself stable in the face of John McCain’s erratic behavior, but Obama also has proven himself consistent in his lead of McCain.

The morning trackers are out.  Rasmussen shows a steady race:

Obama 50

McCain 45

Rasmussen observes:

The data continues to suggest a very stable race with Obama as the clear frontrunner. This is the eighteenth straight day that Obama’s support has stayed in the narrow range from 50% to 52% while McCain has been at 44% of 45%

Research 2000/Daily Kos similarly shows a steady race:

Obama 52

McCain 40

DemFromCT notes:

Obama’s percentage has been at or above 50 since 9/29.

Battleground/GWU similarly calls it a steady race with their numbers the same as they were at the last report:

Obama 51

McCain 43

Diageo Hotline has its numbers out:

Obama 48

McCain 42

Significantly, I think, the poll observes, “The IL Sen. leads 51-38% among LVs in CO, MI, NH, NM, NV, FL, OH, PA, VA and WI.”

Rasmussen has his numbers out this morning and reports that Obama leads McCain by two seven points:

Obama 52

McCain 45

Rasmussen observes:

This is the first update based entirely on interviews conducted after the second Presidential debate and it shows virtually no change. On Tuesday morning, just before the debate, Obama was leading 52% to 44%.

Though Rasmussen calls the race stable, and statistically, it is true, the margin this morning is three two points wider than yesterday when the race was 50 to 45.

This race has not disappointed us who are junkies for presidential politics.  I am not going to review here all the twists and turns the primaries took.  Neither will I rehearse even the surprises that have occurred during this astonishing general election campaign.  But for those of us fascinated with the narrative of presidential politics, yesterday was not a day that let us down, and it is that to which I wish to address myself.

I’ve been reading a lot of posts on the Internet yesterday and today where people have expressed concern at how McCain and Palin are whipping their supporters into frothy-mouthed hatred of Barack Obama.

John McCain

Nero fiddles while Rome burns.

I love Brave New Pac. They have been putting out a lot of great You Tube videos this season on the premise that if we send them to everyone we know, we can make a real impact on how the race turns out.  Among their great hits are Former POW on How McCain is Unfit to Lead, John McCain’s Ads are Lies, and McCain is 72. He’s had cancer 4 times.

They have a great new video just out. They are asking you to send it to all of your friends and ask them to pass it along. The title of the film is, *”John McCain’s Rage is a National Security Concern.”*

Rasmussen continues to show Obama over 50 percent and the race essentially remaining in the same position it has been in for the last two weeks:

Obama 51

McCain 46

The range yesterday was 52-44, so there was a slight narrowing in the race, the same as we see in the Research 2000/Daily Kos numbers:

Obama 51

McCain 41

Yesterday’s numbers were 52-41.  Last night’s numbers do not reflect perspectives on the debate.  We’ll have to wait till Saturday before we have a complete sense of whether the debate moved anyone to one camp or the other.

(Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

One of the things that struck me both during the last debate and the one that took place last evening is how different are the two men in their styles of leadership.  Offering in a concise way this morning in The Washington Post in his reflections about last night’s debate an idea that occurred to me both last evening and a week ago,E. J. Dionne summed up the difference between the two men:

McCain sounded like a legislator, Obama like a president.

Rasmussen reports the same eight point race he saw yesterday:

Obama 52

McCain 44

Rasmussen sees the race as essentially frozen for nearly the last two weeks. He observes:

This is the second straight day that Obama has led by eight percentage points, his largest lead of the year. For the past twelve days, Obama’s support has ranged from 50% to 52% while McCain has been at 44% of 45% every day.

Research 2000/Daily Kos likewise essentially sees the race as static, with Obama where he has been for the prior three days and McCain rising one point from 40 yesterday to 41 today:

Obama 52

McCain 41