Washington, Oct.7 (ANI): Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has widened his lead over Republican rival John McCain in three battleground states.
According to the latest FOX News/Rasmussen Reports Poll, Obama has gained significantly in Colorado, Missouri and Florida.
Obama now leads by 52 percent to 45 percent in Florida. A week ago both McCain and he were tied in the Sunshine State. In Colorado, Obama leads 51 percent to 45 percent. Last week, he had a one-point edge in the state.
In Missouri, Obama leads 50 percent to McCain's 47 percent. Obama continues to hold a narrow advantage in Virginia, 50 percent to 48 percent.
Ohio is the only state where McCain has a 48 percent to 47 percent lead over Obama.
Obama has been gaining steadily ever since Lehman Brothers collapsed in mid-September and made visible the economic problems that have dominated the news ever since.
-In all five states, more voters trust Obama than McCain on economic issues. Economic issues remain far and away the top priority.
-Obama has gained significant ground in recent weeks on the question of who voters trust. The two candidates are even in three states on this question and McCain has only a very modest edge in the other two. In all four states where this question was asked last week, the numbers became at least a bit more favorable this week.
-The number who said they would be comfortable with Delaware Senator Joe Biden as Vice President increased in all three states where the question was asked for a second time.
-There was little change in the number who would be comfortable with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as Vice President.
-When asked which candidate they would like to get advice from on the toughest decision of their life, a narrow plurality chose McCain in all five states. But, as with other questions in the survey, the trend is moving in Obama's direction.
The Rasmussen Reports conducted five state telephone surveys in partnership with Fox News Channel on October 5, 2008. The surveys were conducted in Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, and Virginia. A total of 1,000 likely voters were interviewed in each state using the Rasmussen Reports automated telephone survey methodology.
The margin of sampling error for the full sample in each state poll is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.
Palin continues to hit on Obama-Ayers relationship
Clearwater (Florida, US), Oct.7 (ANI): Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has decided to continue with her anti-Obama remarks in the run-up to the November 4 presidential poll.
In the latest salvo, Palin told Fox News that she doesn't know why Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is off-limits for discussion, calling his anti-American and anti-Semitic remarks 'appalling.'
Palin also isn't backing down on questioning Barack Obama's relationship with William Ayers, the co-founder of the Weather Underground terrorist group.
Palin told voters here on Monday: "Barack Obama says that Ayers was just someone in the neighborhood, but that's less than truthful. His own advisers said they were quote: "certainly friendly". In fact, Obama held one of his first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers' living room and they worked together on various projects in Chicago."
Palin did not say the claim that Obama "pals around" with a terrorist, but did repeat a line she used over the weekend that Obama "sees America as imperfect enough to work with a domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country."
Ayers and Obama live in the same Chicago neighborhood and served on a charity board together. Ayers hosted a fundraiser for Obama when he first ran for state office in the mid-1990s.
The Obama campaign has responded that Obama was eight years old when Ayers was planting bombs, and therefore, can't be linked to his past activities.
Ayers has said he never regretted his Weather Underground activities, which led to the deaths of three of his cohorts in a bomb-making accident.
On Monday, Obama said the tactic used by the McCain team signifies a losing campaign.
"I was a little surprised over the last couple of days to hear ... Sen. McCain's campaign say that we want to turn the page on discussions about the economy and campaign, a member of Sen. McCain's campaign saying today that if we talk about the economic crisis we lose," Obama said.
"I have got news for the McCain campaign - the American people are losing right now. They are losing their jobs - they are losing their health care. They are losing their homes and their savings. I cannot imagine anything more important to talk about than the economic crisis. And the notion that we would want to brush that aside and engage in the usual political shenanigans and smear tactics that have come to characterize too many campaigns," he added. (ANI)
