Campaign has 2 weeks to go
Jim Tankersley and John McCormick, Chicago Tribune / MCT
Issue date: 10/22/08 Section: News
WASHINGTON - Their nearly two-year-old campaigns are down to the final two weeks, and the time has come for John McCain and Barack Obama to harvest a White House victory or watch a dream wither away.
The outcome will spring from strategies planted months or years ago _ images crafted, positions laid out, grassroots organizations and fundraising networks created - and also from the candidates' responses to the campaign's frantic final storms, including a once-in-a-generation economic crisis.
McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, heads toward Election Day trailing in national polls and needing an even bigger late-October comeback than Ronald Reagan in 1980 or Jimmy Carter in 1976. His campaign has retreated to a handful of states President George W. Bush carried in 2004, which McCain must sweep to win narrowly in the Electoral College.
Obama, a freshman Democratic senator from Illinois, is using a fundraising advantage to overwhelm his rival with television ads in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado and several other "must-win" states for McCain. His party appears poised for major gains in the House and Senate. If Obama's poll numbers hold up, Democrats could win a sweeping mandate.
Still, the numbers suggest McCain's window has not closed completely. About a fifth of voters remain undecided or willing to switch allegiances, the latest Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll suggests. Those voters tend to be older, white, independent, Catholic men who lean moderate-to-conservative - a group Obama often struggled to attract in his primary battle with Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
Frank Newport, managing editor of the Gallup Poll, said McCain is trailing Obama by anywhere from 2 to 7 percentage points, depending upon turnout assumptions. More traditional models benefit McCain. Obama does better assuming hordes of new voters will turn out. A pollster.com average of national polls on Friday gave Obama a lead of nearly 7 points.
The outcome will spring from strategies planted months or years ago _ images crafted, positions laid out, grassroots organizations and fundraising networks created - and also from the candidates' responses to the campaign's frantic final storms, including a once-in-a-generation economic crisis.
McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, heads toward Election Day trailing in national polls and needing an even bigger late-October comeback than Ronald Reagan in 1980 or Jimmy Carter in 1976. His campaign has retreated to a handful of states President George W. Bush carried in 2004, which McCain must sweep to win narrowly in the Electoral College.
Obama, a freshman Democratic senator from Illinois, is using a fundraising advantage to overwhelm his rival with television ads in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado and several other "must-win" states for McCain. His party appears poised for major gains in the House and Senate. If Obama's poll numbers hold up, Democrats could win a sweeping mandate.
Still, the numbers suggest McCain's window has not closed completely. About a fifth of voters remain undecided or willing to switch allegiances, the latest Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll suggests. Those voters tend to be older, white, independent, Catholic men who lean moderate-to-conservative - a group Obama often struggled to attract in his primary battle with Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
Frank Newport, managing editor of the Gallup Poll, said McCain is trailing Obama by anywhere from 2 to 7 percentage points, depending upon turnout assumptions. More traditional models benefit McCain. Obama does better assuming hordes of new voters will turn out. A pollster.com average of national polls on Friday gave Obama a lead of nearly 7 points.
Be the first to comment on this story