Conventional wisdom says that the race for the presidency will be decided by the independents…
Well, according to Gallup, John McCain is now trouncing Barack Obama in support from the political middle, and also gained 5-point bump from Democrats after the Republican National Convention.
John McCain’s 6 percentage-point bounce in voter support spanning the Republican National Convention is largely explained by political independents shifting to him in fairly big numbers, from 40% pre-convention to 52% post-convention in Gallup Poll Daily tracking.
By contrast, Democrats’ support for McCain rose 5 percentage points over the GOP convention period, from 9% to 14%, while Republicans’ already-high support stayed about the same.
The surge in political independents who favor McCain for president marks the first time since Gallup began tracking voters’ general-election preferences in March that a majority of independents have sided with either of the two major-party candidates. Prior to now, McCain had received no better than 48% of the independent vote and Obama no better than 46%, making the race for the political middle highly competitive.
It’s quite obvious that Obama’s best days are behind him. His biggest liability in the general election is the fact that his meteoric rise in the Democratic primaries were fueled by ironclad adherence to left-wing positions. As the campaign has progressed, we’ve seen Obama try to tip-toe towards the center, with claims of being a uniter who can work with members of both parties. His record, of course, contradicts his new moderated image makeover, and people are seeing that all the wonderful things Obama claims to be (an agent of change, a reformer, opponent of earmarks, etc.) John McCain and Sarah Palin actually are… and have a record to prove it.
UPDATE: A bump, not a bounce? McCain maintains 5-point lead in Gallup tracking poll.
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