Although it has slipped slightly from the five-point lead he had late last week, Barack Obama continues to be in the lead in the latest Fox/Rasmussen poll of the Presidential election in Virginia:
The latest Fox News/Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Virginia finds Barack Obama leading John McCain 50% to 47%.
This is the second consecutive poll in which Obama has held the advantage in the toss-up state—he had a five percentage points advantage in a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted just four days ago. A week ago, McCain held a two-point edge in the previous Fox News/Rasmussen Reports poll. Other than Obama’s five point edge last week, neither candidate led by more than three points since March.
George W. Bush won Virginia by eight percentage points in 2000 and 2004, but Democrats have focused on Virginia this year as a red state they hope to peel away from Republicans.
Obama has a solid 52% to 41% lead among unaffiliated voters in Virginia. While Obama leads 56% to 40% among women in Virginia, McCain leads 55% to 42% among men (see full demographic crosstabs).
Both candidates are viewed favorably by 55% and unfavorably by 44% in Virginia.
This latest poll comes as both candidates have revealed new ads that are scheduled to get alot of play on Virginia television stations.
The Obama ad focuses on the economy and ties McCain to the eight years of George W. Bush:
The McCain ad, which was actually done by the RNC, argues that Barack Obama’s economic plan would make an already bad situation worse:
The McCain/RNC ad is, obviously, more negative than Obama’s; whether that will work this time around is something that remains to be seen.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
[...] they’d better hurry. Last week three new polls from Rasmussen, Insider Advantage, and CNN all showed Barack Obama with a statistically significant lead in [...]