Obama, McCain in Dead Heat

Attack ads apparently pay off as Obama's rating slips

By Laurel Jorgensen, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 20, 2008 3:56 AM CDT

Copied

Obama, McCain in Dead Heat — John McCain speaks at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Orlando, Fla., earlier this week. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

The race for the White House is a statistical dead heat, indicating that weeks of attack ads from the McCain camp may be working, the Los Angeles Times reports. A Times/Bloomberg poll found Barack Obama holding a 45% lead to John McCain's 43%, which falls within the poll’s margin of error. Obama led by 12 points in the same poll in June. Obama's favorabilty rating has dropped from 59% to 48% since the same poll in June.

“All the negative attacks from the McCain campaign seem to have been paying off,” said the poll director. Race is apparently also a factor, with 9% of those surveyed saying they would feel uncomfortable voting for a black candidate. But the results reveal challenges ahead for McCain, too. Voters favor Obama on economic issues, and 75% of respondents said the nation under a GOP administration is on the wrong track. (Read more Barack Obama stories.)