McCain ahead in national polls; Obama up in electoral votes

[Lasher]

(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain has inched ahead of Sen. Barack Obama in national polls, but the Democratic candidate holds a steady lead in the most recent Electoral College estimates.

In national surveys, McCain leads by two points -- 47 to 45 percent, according to CNN's poll of polls released Monday night.

In the Electoral College standings, the most recent survey shows 243 electoral votes either safely in Obama's column or leaning his way. At this point, McCain can claim only 189.

Many of the state polls used to determine the Electoral College standings, however, were conducted before the conventions.

Monday marked the first time McCain passed Obama in CNN's poll of polls.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/09/presidential.polls/

Know why? Palin makes the fundies and rightwing extremists happy. That's where the McSame's improved poll numbers are coming from. Most of them are in red states that were going to vote GOP anyway. Just my two cents worth.

[bdamomma]

1. the luster of the mccain/palin campaign will soon loose that shine.

[Lasher]

3. Of that I have no doubt.

Some, like the disgruntled fundies, will stick around. But overall it will go just as you say. I hope.

[PATRICK]

2. The Dem primaries in the new macrocosm

Obama looks dead on to win and McCain is no Hillary Clinton. In fact there may come a time when the spine of the GOP campaign simply snaps. Don't count on it, but they are hitting their limits and hopefully this will be the best they can do except live on meme dreams.

[RiverStone]

4. The electoral college is our best reminder that Obama will be just fine!

Soon to be President-Elect Obama! :)

[bdamomma]

5. wasn't the electoral college at one time going to be eliminated.

I heard that a long time ago, in this instance I am glad they are still there.

[terrya]

7. I think Senator Clinton introduced a bill to abolish the EC a few years ago.

Somebody in Congress does it periodically. It doesn't go anywhere.

[musicblind]

15. I agree. In this instance I am glad they are still there

However, in the future, after we have safely won this one... I still support removing the EC system.

[LeftinOH]

6. Not that I want it to happen..but how f*cking sweet would it be to win the electoral

votes, but get less popular votes. The RW noise machine would go berserk!..and they'd know damn well how it feels. But, to repeat -I'd much rather have the numbers on our side for both electoral votes and popular vote.

[Max_powers94]

8. I think O'bama is going to win the popular vote.

[bdamomma]

12. there is alot of spin and lies coming out of the media

they want a horse race, I don't believe what the media says, or take what they say with lots of grains of salt. These are corporations who stand to loose alot of money if mc cain does not get in, so they will say anything.

[Curtland1015]

9. I know what you mean!

Of course I'd rather win by a LANDSLIDE, but wouldn't it be sweet to win by electoral votes only? If only just to laugh in the Repugs faces?

However, the Rovebots would probably just engineer a reason why it ISN'T constitutional and give McCain the election anyway...

[Courtesy Flush]

11. I was going to post the same thing

It would be bittersweet, as I'd really like to see a huge majority, but the flip-flopping would be fun to watch.

[flamingdem]

10. Overconfidence will kill us. Please volunteer to phone bank or canvas. Word is that there are not

enough people to do this work in critical swing states. Every person is needed to phone bank for instance into Florida and Ohio.

Check Obama's website and spend an hour or two a week to help!

[KingFlorez]

13. Good, he's ahead where it counts

As long as he holds steady with the state numbers, everything is fine.

[ElboRuum]

14. CNN has a poll of... polls.

Is this called metapolling?

[Lasher]

16. I guess. RCP does the same thing.

The theory is, you get better accuracy by averaging and by increasing the size of the overall sample. I agree with that.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/

[apnu]

17. Odd, a few days ago pollster.com had Obama with 260 EV, today he's down to 243 EV.

Tossups are everywhere. What does this all mean?

[AZ Criminal JD]

18. You didn't even read the article you posted.

The state polls were taken before the conventions. We really don't know about the electoral votes state by state at this point.

[Lasher]

19. The article says 'many of the state polls'.

Not all of the state polls. I included that verbiage in the OP - which apparently you didn't read.

[AZ Criminal JD]

20. I did read it

You said Obama was ahead in electoral votes. No one knows that because of lack of current state polls. You also said McCain's improved numbers were because of his improved standing in red states. We don't know that without state polls to give evidence. Try again.

[Lasher]

21. My first try was just fine.

The first sentence of the article says, "...the Democratic candidate holds a steady lead in the most recent Electoral College estimates." It is a common practice to cite the most recent available polls. This is a simple concept, please try to focus.

It was speculation on my part when I said most of McGOP's improved poll numbers were coming from red states. See, that's whay I said, "Just my two cents worth." I'll hypothesize if I feel like it. If you don't like it, too bad for you.