The Democrat focuses on energy in Ohio as the Republican tackles women’s issues at a Wisconsin town hall meeting.
By Louise Roug and Mave RestonJuly 12, 2008
Democrat Barack Obama focused on energy today while Republican John McCain campaigned on women’s issues as the presidential campaigns turned to two pivotal Midwest states.
McCain, who tried to focus on economic issues this week, sounded the same themes as he spoke before a virtually all-woman town hall meeting in Hudson, Wis. Earlier, he spoke with female business owners.
As he has before, the Arizona senator said he wants to cuts taxes and explained that that would help women. He spoke a day after Obama campaigned on women’s issues in New York and Virginia.
“Yesterday in New York, Sen. Obama went on at great length about how much he cares about women’s issues,” McCain said. “I believe him. But when you cut through all the smooth rhetoric, Sen. Obama’s policies would make it harder for women to start new businesses, harder for women to create or find new jobs, harder for women to manage the family budget, and harder for women and their families to meet their tax burden.”
In introducing the McCains, one female executive discussed her struggle to lose weight and a shopping trip to a department store.
Cindy McCain then told the audience of about 500 that the best way to lose 30 pounds was to be out the campaign trail. She added that the pants she was wearing were two sizes too big.
Obama was in Dayton, where he spoke on energy and security issues. The Illinois senator said he agreed with McCain’s recent comments that the United States’ “dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long-term about the future of the country.”
Then, the Democrat blamed McCain for being part of the problem because he has been in Washington for 26 years, emphasizing a frequent theme Obama has used against the likely Republican presidential nominee.
The candidates were in states that are crucial to their November hopes.
President Bush lost Wisconsin twice, but Democrat John Kerry won it in 2004 by only about a third of a percentage point. The McCain camp believes it has a shot at winning the state’s 10 electoral votes, though recent state polls show Obama running about 10 points ahead.
Ohio, with its 20 electoral votes, has been won by every president since 1968. Obama lost the Democratic primary to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ran strongly among white blue-collar voters, a group that McCain and Obama have been courting.
Recent polls vary, some showing a dead heat and others have Obama running slightly ahead.
On energy, Obama attacked McCain’s proposal for a holiday on the federal gasoline tax for summer driving and the Republican’s call for increased offshore drilling.
Obama outlined his energy plan, which includes $150 billion over 10 years for research into oil alternatives and conservation.
By Louise Roug and Mave RestonJuly 12, 2008
Democrat Barack Obama focused on energy today while Republican John McCain campaigned on women’s issues as the presidential campaigns turned to two pivotal Midwest states.
McCain, who tried to focus on economic issues this week, sounded the same themes as he spoke before a virtually all-woman town hall meeting in Hudson, Wis. Earlier, he spoke with female business owners.
As he has before, the Arizona senator said he wants to cuts taxes and explained that that would help women. He spoke a day after Obama campaigned on women’s issues in New York and Virginia.
“Yesterday in New York, Sen. Obama went on at great length about how much he cares about women’s issues,” McCain said. “I believe him. But when you cut through all the smooth rhetoric, Sen. Obama’s policies would make it harder for women to start new businesses, harder for women to create or find new jobs, harder for women to manage the family budget, and harder for women and their families to meet their tax burden.”
In introducing the McCains, one female executive discussed her struggle to lose weight and a shopping trip to a department store.
Cindy McCain then told the audience of about 500 that the best way to lose 30 pounds was to be out the campaign trail. She added that the pants she was wearing were two sizes too big.
Obama was in Dayton, where he spoke on energy and security issues. The Illinois senator said he agreed with McCain’s recent comments that the United States’ “dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long-term about the future of the country.”
Then, the Democrat blamed McCain for being part of the problem because he has been in Washington for 26 years, emphasizing a frequent theme Obama has used against the likely Republican presidential nominee.
The candidates were in states that are crucial to their November hopes.
President Bush lost Wisconsin twice, but Democrat John Kerry won it in 2004 by only about a third of a percentage point. The McCain camp believes it has a shot at winning the state’s 10 electoral votes, though recent state polls show Obama running about 10 points ahead.
Ohio, with its 20 electoral votes, has been won by every president since 1968. Obama lost the Democratic primary to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ran strongly among white blue-collar voters, a group that McCain and Obama have been courting.
Recent polls vary, some showing a dead heat and others have Obama running slightly ahead.
On energy, Obama attacked McCain’s proposal for a holiday on the federal gasoline tax for summer driving and the Republican’s call for increased offshore drilling.
Obama outlined his energy plan, which includes $150 billion over 10 years for research into oil alternatives and conservation.
With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, Barack Obama has held or increased his lead in four key states won by President Bush in 2004 — Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia — while he has lost ground in West Virginia, according to the latest series of TIME/CNN battleground-state polls conducted by Opinion Research Corp. The polls suggest that the McCain campaign's recent attempts to link the Democratic nominee to former domestic terrorist William Ayers and the liberal organizing group ACORN (which the GOP accuses of perpetrating voter fraud) are not resonating with most voters.
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Obama gained the most ground in North Carolina, where he now leads John McCain among likely voters by 51% to 47%, up 4 percentage points from earlier this month, when a similar poll showed the two tied at 49%. In Nevada, Obama expanded his lead to 51% to McCain's 46%, up 1 percentage point from September. Similarly, in the crucial swing state of Ohio, Obama leads the Arizona Senator by a 50% to 46% margin, an increase of 1 percentage point from his lead earlier this month. In Virginia, a state that increasingly looks to be solidly in Obama's corner, the Illinois Senator remains 10 percentage points ahead, 54% to 44%. Still, Obama's ability to make inroads in red states does appear to have some limits; he lost ground in West Virginia — a state his campaign has said they are just starting to contest — and now trails there by 41% to McCain's 53%, which more than doubles McCain's September lead of 49% to Obama's 44%.
McCain's failure to move the needle in the four key states likely reflects, in part, the fact that his latest attacks on Obama are not having much impact. Although a majority of voters in Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina had heard of Ayers and ACORN, less than one-third of voters said such issues would affect their votes.
The races in Ohio, North Carolina and Nevada — while showing Obama trending up — remain inside or very close to the margins of error for those states. In Virginia, Obama's lead is far outside the margin of error, and McCain's lead in West Virginia is also solid. The polls of Nevada and Ohio have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, while those of North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia have margins of error of plus or minus 4 points.
The polls were conducted over the phone from Oct. 19-21. In Nevada, 911 registered voters and 700 likely voters were polled. In North Carolina, 940 registered voters and 644 likely voters were surveyed. Pollsters in Ohio spoke to 938 registered voters and 737 likely voters. In Virginia, 927 registered voters and 647 likely voters were polled. And in West Virginia, 893 registered and 674 likely voters were polled.
(Click here for full results.)
(See Pictures of the Week here.)
