McCain leads in 'values' support
By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published August 16, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
Sen. Barack Obama may need to convince many Colorado voters that he shares their values, and he'll get his chance to do so in their own backyard.
Overall, a Rocky Mountain News/CBS4 News survey this week shows the race as a statistical dead heat, with Republican Sen. John McCain leading the Democrat Obama, 44 percent to 41 percent - well within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points.
McCain has an even larger, 8-percentage-point edge on a key follow-up poll question, asking respondents to say which candidate "shares your values."
On that question, Obama has a 4-percentage-point advantage among women. But among men, McCain wins hands-down, 52 percent to 32 percent.
Finding ways to share his life story and convince people that he thinks like they do should be Obama's top priority at the upcoming convention in Denver, said pollsters Lori Weigel, a partner with Public Opinion Strategies, and Craig Hughes, director of research for RBI Strategies.
"Almost all voters have heard of Barack Obama. Almost all voters have heard him speak . . . and picked up a fair amount of info about what positions he has taken," Hughes said. "But what they don't know is what made him the person he is today."
In short, Obama needs to make voters more comfortable with him, and overcome impressions based on his Harvard background, his celebrity status, race or other factors that make him appear different from average Coloradans.
So expect much of the convention, including appearances by his wife, Michelle Obama, and other family members and friends, to stress the more everyman elements of the candidate's story, like being raised by a single mother as a child.
"The other thing they'll do is 'go Oprah,' " Weigel said, coining a new term for highly personalized glimpses at a candidate. "I think she's a verb now. You know, the whole sit down and chat with the family."
Weigel thinks one critical night of the convention is the first one, when Michelle Obama speaks in prime time.
That's because on the "shares your values" question, which McCain leads widely among men, Obama's best hope of narrowing the overall gap is by increasing his narrow advantage among women.
Still up for grabs: independent female voters. "If he's going to win the state, he'd better win with independent women," Weigel said of Obama.
sprengelmeyerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 202-436-2345
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August 17, 2008
10:39 a.m.
Suggest removal
sweetie writes:
As a Hillary Supporter myself,I'll never vote for Obama.Obama and the MSM used the race card and the gender card against Hillary.John McCain 08
August 17, 2008
4:05 p.m.
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raoul writes:
i was really pumped up about Obama. But, the more time passes, I sense he's maxed out the style points and the substance issues will be his undoing.
it's amazing that McCain is actually tied with Obama nationally (and in CO) considering the media has been such a proponent of his.
I'm not happy with either candidate 100%, but McCain seems to be more solid and competent, where Obama is obviously learning on the job.
August 18, 2008
1:58 p.m.
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Mayor_Quimby writes:
Raoul, good job at coming to your senses! Hopefully, more people will see how much of a fraud Obama really is. There are several democratic possibilities that would have done such a better job and would have done much better at the polls than this guy. However, the democratic party has become the party of the far-left and special interest groups like Moveon.org, the teachers unions, and environmental lobby's.
August 18, 2008
11:27 p.m.
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Rafael writes:
I'm not so sure what type of a 'fraud' Obama may be, but I'm sure most folks don't share John McCain's values, which include adultery and divorce, unethical behavior as part of the Keating Five, calling Hillary Clinton a 'b!tch' [is that your candidate, sweetie?], marries for money, covers for his wife's theft of drugs from her nonprofit organization, has a temper that is uncontrolled...the list goes on...I'm not sure if anyone really believes that John McCain wins on the character issue.
He does however win on the slime meter, where someone uses code words and underlings to take advantage of the widespread but unacknowledged racism in America [everyone knows that exotic=non-white, that Supreme Court justices who are strict constructionists=segregationists, etc.].
End the politics of destruction: Vote Obama in '08.