Filed under: Republicans , John McCain , Featured Stories , 2008 President Frank Rich, Op-ed columnist for the New York Times, thinks he has figured out why Barack Obama isn't slaughtering John McCain in the polls right now: So why isn't Obama romping? The obvious answer - and both the excessively genteel Obama campaign and a too-compliant press bear responsibility for it - is that the public doesn't know who on earth John McCain is. The most revealing poll this month by far is the Pew Research Center survey finding that 48 percent of Americans feel they're "hearing too much" about Obama. Pew found that only 26 percent feel that way about McCain, and that nearly 4 in 10 Americans feel they hear too little about him. It's past time for that pressing educational need to be met. Yes, if only someone had postulated that theory back in, oh, I don't know, May ? And again in early July? Rich also points out that the narrative du jour that Obama's narrow lead in the polls means he's losing is historically unsupported: No presidential candidate was breaking the 50 percent mark in mid-August polls in 2004 or 2000. Obama's average lead of three to four points is marginally larger than both John Kerry's and Al Gore's leads then (each was winning by one point in Gallup surveys). Obama is also ahead of Ronald Reagan in mid-August 1980 (40 percent to Jimmy Carter's 46). At Pollster.com, which aggregates polls and gauges the electoral count, Oba ...
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Filed under: Republicans , John McCain , Featured Stories , 2008 President Frank Rich, Op-ed columnist for the New York Times, thinks he has figured out why Barack Obama isn't slaughtering John McCain in the polls right now: So why isn't Obama romping? The obvious answer - and both the excessively genteel Obama campaign and a too-compliant press bear responsibility for it - is that the public doesn't know who on earth John McCain is. The most revealing poll this month by far is the Pew Research Center survey finding that 48 percent of Americans feel they're "hearing too much" about Obama. Pew found that only 26 percent feel that way about McCain, and that nearly 4 in 10 Americans feel they hear too little about him. It's past time for that pressing educational need to be met. Yes, if only someone had postulated that theory back in, oh, I don't know, May ? And again in early July? Rich also points out that the narrative du jour that Obama's narrow lead in the polls means he's losing is historically unsupported: No presidential candidate was breaking the 50 percent mark in mid-August polls in 2004 or 2000. Obama's average lead of three to four points is marginally larger than both John Kerry's and Al Gore's leads then (each was winning by one point in Gallup surveys). Obama is also ahead of Ronald Reagan in mid-August 1980 (40 percent to Jimmy Carter's 46). At Pollster.com, which aggregates polls and gauges the electoral count, Oba ...