Kerry Leads
An AP/Ipsos poll has Kerry with a three point edge, 49% to 46%, over President Bush among likely voters nationwide. The poll has a MOE of +-3%.
President Bush's job approval rating was 47%. The poll was taken October 18-20.
Other internals:
A majority, 51 percent, support the president's handling of foreign policy and the war on terror. By 7 percentage points, they think he would protect the country better than Kerry. That is similar to the AP-Ipsos poll earlier in the month, but down from a 23-point advantage in March.Voters are evenly split on who would do the best job on Iraq. They find the candidates equally honest and likable, but Bush is viewed as much more decisive.
By an 18-point margin, Kerry is seen as best suited to create jobs for workers.
Job approval below 50%, vote share at 46% and the incumbent rule ready to kick in next week. Hmm...
Comments
Yes, I'm hopeful too.
A few polls have Bush in the 49-50% range, which is troublesome. Then again, when bloggers look at the internals on some of those polls, they frequently find oversampling of Republicans!
Posted by: Rodger | October 21, 2004 02:44 PM
Is there really anyone in the country who doesn't think Bush is more decisive? It's easy to be decisive when you have a binary worldview dictated by ideology and untroubled by complications such as facts.
I am hopeful because so many of the polls are focusing on "likely" voters and leaving out the people who are newly registered or newly motivated, who largely seem to be supportive of Kerry -- or at least opposed to Bush.
Posted by: Nurse Ratched | October 22, 2004 10:14 AM
Hopefully, the polls have "tuned into" the mood of the country as a whole. Kerry supporters will take this with a "grain of salt". I think all of us will be glad when the election is over.
I hope the judges and lawyers won't be deciding the thing this time around. The "election" in 2000 was a hard pill to swallow for many of us.
Posted by: Steve Plonk | October 24, 2004 09:15 AM