Eight major newspapers in Ohio, including The Toledo Blade, Columbus Dispatch, and Cleveland Plain Dealer got together and sponsored an election poll this past week. The results were posted today (Sunday) and the they show that while respondents think the country is headed in the wrong direction, they think John McCain should be the next president.
WTF?
In the battle for Ohio’s 20 electoral votes, Republican presidential nominee John McCain holds a 48 percent to 42 percent lead over Democratic opponent Barack Obama — but with lots of time left in a volatile race, according to the first Ohio Newspaper Poll.
The poll also surveyed Ohio voters on health care, energy, and their personal financial situations — with almost half saying they are worse off today than four years ago.
The Ohio News Organization — a cooperative formed this year by the state’s eight largest daily newspapers — commissioned the poll. The Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati, which also runs the respected Ohio Poll, surveyed 869 likely Ohio voters from Sept. 12-16, with an error margin of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
70 percent agreed that global warming is a proven fact, not an unproven theory. However, fewer than half — 46 percent — blamed man-made emissions.
55 percent said investing in alternative energy sources should be the top priority for U.S. energy policy, while 29 percent saw expanded exploration and drilling for oil and natural gas as the top priority.
57 percent favored building more nuclear power facilities.
[Eric Rademacher, interim co-director of the institute] did not find strong evidence of race bias among voters. Twenty-three percent of the respondents thought Mr. Obama’s race would hurt him in the election — with Democrats holding that view more than twice as often as Republicans.
A much larger number — 44 percent — said Mr. McCain’s age, at 72, would hurt him, with more Democrats than Republicans holding this view.
Ohio survey gives John McCain 6-point edge over Barack Obama
The article notes that the poll was conducted before the Wall Street meltdown had fully hit the fan. Although it wasn't noted, last week had thousands of people without power in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Northeast Ohio which might have affected the results - in my view anyway.
What drives me crazy is people match up to Obama's points of view on the issues but still pick McCain.