Poll: Obama lead widens in Pennsylvania; Florida too close to call
Pittsburgh Business Times
A new poll released Wednesday finds Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama leading Republican opponent John McCain in three key swing states, including Pennsylvania.
With less than a week to go before Election Day, Obama has a 53 percent to 41 percent lead in the Keystone State, according to Quinnipiac University's Presidential Swing States poll. Fifty-five percent of likely Pennsylvania voters said Obama would be a "great" or "good" president, the poll found.
Obama holds a significant lead over McCain in the southeast Philadelphia suburbs, which have been the key to the state in recent elections, according to Quinnipiac. That lead "should seal up Pennsylvania for Obama," Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.
Likely voters polled in Ohio put Obama ahead 51 percent to 42 percent over McCain. But in Florida, the state that decided the 2000 contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore, it's still "too close to call," the poll finds. Obama leads McCain in the Sunshine State by a margin of two points: 47 percent to 45 percent.
No one has been elected president since 1960 without taking two of these three largest swing states, according to Hamden, Conn.-based Quinnipiac.
"If — IF — Sen. Barack Obama can take Florida, he could match or come close to President Bill Clinton 's re-election margin in 1996, carrying all three of the big swing states en route to rolling up 379 Electoral College votes," Brown said. "The last challenger to win the Big Three was Ronald Reagan, who tallied 489 Electoral College votes in his 1980 landslide."
Fiffty-four percent of likely Pennsylvania voters still say the economy is the most important issue, the poll found.
The poll surveyed 1,364 likely Pennsylvania voters between Oct. 22 and Oct. 26.
Election Day is Nov. 4.
