Study: Obama Crushing McCain on Issues

According to a May 29 Pew study, Barack Obama is in a dominant position over John McCain on important issues, just as the general election campaign gets underway.

Obama holds sizable advantages over McCain as better able to handle the economy as well as the nation's energy problems. Currently, half of voters say Obama could do a better job of improving the economy, while 36% favor McCain. Obama's lead over McCain on the economy is about the same as it was in April (53% Obama vs. 33% McCain).

Obama holds comparable leads over McCain on dealing with nation's energy problems (18 points) and improving the health care system (17 points). In addition, about half of voters (48%) say that Obama better reflects their views on social issues such as abortion and gay rights, while just 34% favor McCain.

The report does show McCain with a lead on Iraq, but one that has shrunk from 12 points in April, to a statistical tie, 3%, in May. This before Obama has even been officially nominated. How much trouble is this for McCain?

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A whole bucket of trouble. Obama hasn't really even started campaigning against McCain yet, and McCain doesn't really have anywhere to go on these issues. He's pretty much ceded the economy, taping a DNC ad for Obama last year, his health care plan is a joke that looks funnier next to the Democrats' argument over how many more million people their plans will actually cover, and he's getting slaughtered by Obama on energy, the voters' new #1 thing.

His disappearing advantage on Iraq may be moot anyway, since 61% of voters say they want the next president to focus on Domestic issues.

McCain also holds narrow margins of 5 points each on taxes and immigration, but again, there's not much room for improvement here. If this is how he does unopposed, give it a few weeks.

So, what will McCain do? The only thing he really can do is go negative against Obama, something he has promised not to do, and has only really flirted with so far. In the few skirmishes thus far, such as the gas tax holiday, the "appeasement" dustup, and his most recent Iraq posturing, McCain has gotten roughed up pretty good by the media, and this study would indicate people are noticing.

After a few more weeks of this, I expect we'll see a whole bunch of "rogue" 527's and state GOP's running ads of Obama punting kittens, with the Terminator theme on the soundtrack. Considering Hillary's late surge in Appalachia, we probably have some Southern Strategy to look forward to, as well.

Lucky for us, even Republicans have wised up to the fact that things are going badly here, and that maybe they don't want to hand the keys to the same guy.




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