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New polls give Obama economic edge
2008-09-23
SAGINAW, Michigan (AFP) - A flurry of new polls in vital White House battlegrounds Tuesday showed Democrat Barack Obama getting a clear boost from the financial crisis as voters blame Republicans for the meltdown. Fresh Quinnipiac University surveys in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin put Obama ahead, exactly six weeks from the November 4 election day, and offered troubling warning signs for Republican John McCain. Obama, seeking to seize the initiative, voiced sharp reservations about the government's 700-billion-dollar bailout plan to help struggling financial institutions drawn up by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. "This plan cannot be a welfare program for Wall Street executives," Obama told a press conference in Florida, setting out four demands including that a board be set up to oversee the economic rescue plan. "The power to spend 700 billion dollars of taxpayer money cannot be left to the discretion of one man, no matter who is he is or which party he is from. I have great respect for Secretary Paulson, but he cannot act alone." The Illinois senator, 47, who is busy preparing for Friday's presidential debate with McCain, also called for taxpayers to be treated as investors in the crisis and to share in the profits when Wall Street recovers. And he demanded that the plan before Congress for approval must provide help for homeowners struggling to make payments amid the mortgage crisis. McCain on Tuesday toured two of the heartland battleground states of Ohio and Michigan, where he was later due to give a press conference. "I know that a lot of eyes have been on Wall Street and Washington for the past week as we all process the credit crisis," McCain said, as he was endorsed by a construction union in Strongsville, outside Cleveland. "But I want the people here in Ohio to know that I have not forgotten the economy on Main Street," McCain said. The Arziona senator, 72, vowed to create employment with pro-growth economic policies, and argued that Obama's plans would result in higher taxes and "kill jobs." The latest poll average by RealClearPolitics.com gives McCain a 1.8 percent edge in Ohio, a microcosm of the US electoral map with urban areas which lean Democratic and suburbs and country regions which are more conservative. Ohio is a vital state in any route to the White House, and was decisive in 2004 in returning President George W. Bush to power, at the expense of Democrat John Kerry. The new sheaf of Quinnipiac polls offered the latest sign that Obama's advantage over McCain on the economy and his strategy of tying his rival to the unpopular Bush may be paying off. In Colorado, Obama led McCain by 49 to 45 percent. Last month, the Republican was up by one point there, by 47-46 percent, in the Quinnipiac survey. In Michigan, which has been badly hit by the flight of blue-collar jobs abroad, Obama led McCain 48 to 44 percent, compared to 46-42 percent on July 24. In Minnesota, Obama held a two percentage point lead of 47 to 45 percent, compared to 46 to 44 percent in late July. In midwestern Wisconsin, Obama led by 49 to 42 percent, though his advantage has narrowed from 50 to 39 percent in July. "With a lousy economy, an unpopular war and an even less popular Republican president, it's difficult to find voters who don't want change," said Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac's polling institute. Voters in all four battlegrounds said the economy was the top issue in the presidential election and in three of the four states said Obama was better equipped to handle it. McCain's vice presidential pick Sarah Palin, who has come under fire for her lack of experience, was meanwhile taking her first steps on the international stage on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The Alaska governor met briefly with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and former US secretary of state and foreign policy guru Henry Kissinger. But her refusal to allow most of her traveling press pool to accompany her sparked more tensions with journalists frustrated at their lack of access to the governor, a political unknown before being picked by McCain as his running mate late last month. The meetings should yield her ammunition for her vice presidential debate with Democrat Joseph Biden on October 2.
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