JOHN McCain, the Republican presidential candidate is gaining ground on Barack Obama across the board following his introduction of Sarah Palin as his running mate.
The first post-party convention poll, released yesterday by ABC/Washington Post, shows Mr McCain gaining on Mr Obama in nine key policy areas on which respondents were questioned.
Mr Obama maintains a single percentage point lead in the pol
l, 47 per cent to Mr McCain's 46.
Mr McCain's decision to pick the Alaska governor as his vice- presidential nominee has seen him for the first time overtake Mr Obama in numbers of white women voters. He already has a majority of white male voters.
Before the Democratic Convention in late August, Mr Obama held an 8 percentage point lead among white women voters, 50 per cent to 42 per cent, but after the Republican Convention last week, Mr McCain was ahead by 12 points among white women, 53 per cent to 41 per cent, the poll found.
The poll also shows Mr McCain has recovered his lead on national security issues and is making ground on the economy, once Mr Obama's strongest suit, with the gap between the men now four points.
The boost to Mr McCain is indicated in the first poll to show the state of play after each candidate enjoyed his post-convention "bounce".
Most notable has been a 12 point jump in Mr McCain's fortunes when voters are asked who is the candidate for "change" – Mr Obama still leads, 51 to 39, but Mr McCain's decision to add "change" to his own voter message appears to be working.
"The pick of Palin was a game-changer," said Philip Klein, a columnist on the American Spectator. "One of the things Obama had benefited from was that he's this great new story, but she's made him old news."
Part of the reason is that since Mrs Palin exploded on to the scene last week, the Obama camp has been stumbling.
Mr Obama himself has reacted clumsily to Mrs Palin, highlighting her lack of executive experience in comments that focused voters on his own slim resume with only three years in the Senate
"Obama needs to get his mojo back," said Thomas Defrank of the New York Daily News.
Yesterday, Mr Obama hit back, dismissing the latest polls as unreliable of longer-term voter intentions.
"These are the same polls that had me twenty points down last summer," he said while touring the swing state of Ohio.
One bright spot for Mr Obama concerns the polls in the states that matter. Victory in November goes not to the candidate with the most votes per se, but the one who captures the key states and their all-important electoral college votes.
And on this basis, Mr Obama is heading for victory – albeit of the wafer thin variety.
These polls show that the states voting Democrat in 2004 will do so again, while three Republican states – Colorado, Iowa and New Mexico – will turn "blue." That would give Mr Obama victory, but only just, even if he fails to win the big states of Ohio and Florida.
But pollsters caution that their own polls are too changeable for predictions to be made.
"It's running so close right now that anyone who says they know who's going to win is talking rubbish," said Mr Klein.
What makes it so volatile is the deep unease many voters have about both candidates.
Mr Obama scores highly for his call for "change" but many voters doubt he has the experience. Mr McCain is heir to a wildly unpopular Bush administration and, at 72, would be the oldest-ever first term president.
Even his choice of Mrs Palin has voters in two minds. While her no-nonsense message about family values resonates with millions, she is coming under increasing scrutiny.
Yesterday, the American press reported that the governor had been claiming thousands of dollars of state cash to fly her husband and children around Alaska while drawing an accommodation allowance for nights spent at home.
Attention now focuses on the four debates, three between Mr McCain and Mr Obama and one between their vice-presidential nominees, over the 55 days of campaigning that are left.
...but Obama has backing of 22 other countriesBARACK Obama may be struggling to nudge ahead of his Republican rival in polls at home, but people across the world want him in the White House, a new poll reveals today.
All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer to see Mr Obama elected US president ahead of Republican John McCain. And in 17 of the 22 nations, people expect relations between the US and the rest of the world to improve if Mr Obama wins.
More than 23,000 people were questioned by pollster GlobeScan in countries ranging from India to Australia, and across Africa, Europe and South America.
The margin in favour of Mr Obama ranged from 9 per cent in India to 82 per cent in Kenya, while an average of 49 per cent across the 22 countries preferred Mr Obama, compared with 12 per cent preferring Mr McCain. Some four in ten did not take a view.
GlobeScan's chairman, Doug Miller, said: "Given how negative America's international image is at present, it is quite striking that only one in five think a McCain presidency would improve on the Bush administration's relations with the world."
The countries most optimistic that an Obama presidency would improve relations were his country's Nato allies – Canada (69 per cent), France (62), Germany (61), Britain (54), Italy (64) and Australia (62 per cent).
