http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1562Sept. 23/25
The Horserace
Sept. 23/25
Obama 43.4%
McCain 45.8%
Not sure/Other 10.4%
The big shift in the race appears to have come among independent voters, where McCain now leads by nine points, 43% to 34%. In the survey conducted over the weekend, Obama led by one point among independents.
Both candidates have a sturdy grip on their political bases, the survey shows. McCain and Obama each win 88% support from voters in their respective political parties.
Among men, McCain leads by a 53% to 35% margin, up 15 points from the weekend survey. Among women, Obama leads by a 52% to 39% margin, up 5 points from the weekend survey.
The survey, half conducted before McCain's announcement Wednesday that he would suspend his campaign to concentrate on the financial crisis and half conducted after the announcement, shows movement in McCain's favor after his announcement. Before the announcement - which included about half of the total polling sample - Obama led by one point. But McCain led by 5 points in polling completed after his statement about the suspension of his campaign. Overall, the interactive survey, conducted Sept. 23-25, 2008, included 4,752 likely voters nationwide and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.5 percentage points.
Pollster John Zogby: "The financial crisis appears to have trumped the campaign at least for now, but what remains true is that this race is really very close. Obama was clearly leading before - we had him up by three points over the weekend - but I never thought his lead was as high as nine points, as at least one poll had indicated. We are careful to weight our poll samples to reflect the proper proportion of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. And of course, we always sample likely voters, not registered voters, to most closely reflect what would happen in an election."
