The Daily Background

Newsweek:

Barack finally has his bounce. For weeks many political experts and pollsters have been wondering why the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain had stayed so tight, even after the Illinois senator wrested the nomination from Hillary Clinton. With numbers consistently showing rock-bottom approval ratings for President Bush and a large majority of Americans unhappy with the country’s direction, the opposing-party candidate should, in the normal course, have attracted more disaffected voters. Now it looks as if Obama is doing just that. A new NEWSWEEK Poll shows that he has a substantial double-digit lead, 51 percent to 36 percent, over McCain among registered voters nationwide.

The last time Newsweek did a poll it was in May and both McCain and Obama got 46% (that was when Clinton was still in the race). Also from the poll: only 14% of Americans are “satisfied” with the direction the country is headed.

More:

55% of voters consider themselves Democrats
36% of voters consider themselves Republicans

Women prefer Obama to McCain 54% to 33%, 18% of Clinton voters defected to McCain

Voters view Obama favorably 62% to 26%
Voters view McCain favorably 49% to 37%

Voters trust Obama over McCain to fix the Bush economy 54% to 29%

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