Voters grade Barack Obama and John McCain

The folks at the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released a poll Thursday tracking the "passion gap" between Barack Obama and John McCain, which we already told you about.

But there's an interesting tidbit buried deep within the poll results that should have some bells going off inside McCain headquarters. Or maybe they were already going off, and that's part of the reason Rick Davis ceded some campaign turf to Steve Schmidt.

The finding has to do with measuring how the candidates are making the sale. Obama -- doing all right. McCain -- well, let's let the Pew folks tell it:

A solid majority (56%) give the Obama campaign letter grades of A or B for the job he is doing to convince the American public to vote for him, while only 32% say the same of the McCain campaign. More than a third (35%) offer a grade of C to McCain's campaign so far, and nearly as many (30%) say the campaign has earned a D or F.

The grades voters give to the Obama campaign for the job it is doing convincing them to vote for him are the highest measured for any candidate over the past four election cycles. In June 2004, for example, just 39% gave Bush's efforts an A or B; even fewer gave high grades to Kerry's campaign (31%). In contrast, McCain's middling grades are slightly lower than those awarded to Bush in both 2000 and 2004. McCain's campaign does garner higher grades than the 1996 Dole campaign, which only 22% graded highly.

In this regard, the 2008 campaign has the largest disparity in high grades for the Democratic and Republican candidates over the past four election cycles (24 points). The gap between the grades for Obama and McCain is even larger than for Bill Clinton and Bob Dole in July 1996; at that time, 37% gave Clinton an A or B, while just 22% gave top grades to Dole.

The differences in the ratings of the two presidential campaigns are reflected in the opinions of their partisans. Nearly eight-in-ten Democratic voters (79%) give the Obama campaign letter grades of A or B for the job he is doing to convince the American public to vote for him, and a smaller majority of Republican voters (54%) give high marks to the McCain campaign. More independents give A or B grades to the Obama campaign than to the McCain campaign (49% v. 31%). In addition, while more than a third of Republicans (35%) give high grades to Obama, just 16% of Democrats give high grades to McCain.

McCain was asked about the poll Thursday -- specifically the bit about voters being more excited about Obama at this stage than they are about him. His response goes a long way toward explaining another finding from that poll: "Relatively few voters" think the candidates have been too negative. But at the same time, McCain's comment indicates that his focus is on the war in Iraq and national security when polls show most of the country is more concerned with the economy -- whining or not.

Said McCain: "I admire and respect the campaign that Sen. Obama has run. He has done a fine job in motivating many, many people. I am confident that as we go through this campaign that I will convince the majority of voters in this country that I am the person to lead this nation through very difficult times. ... Sen. Obama didn’t support the surge, wanted us to pull out, said that it would fail. I supported it when it was the toughest thing to do. I believe that my record on national security and keeping this country safe is there, and the American people will examine our records, and I believe that I will win."

-- Scott Martelle

Top photo: Democrat Barack Obama. Credit: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press

Bottom photo: Republican John McCain. Credit: Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press 

Comments

[Wm Tate]

Excellent article!

One of the real untold stories of this campaign is how professionally the Obama campaign has been run, using every trick in the book to try to make it look like there's a spontaneous groundswell of support for him when he's actually the beneficiary of a well-oiled political machine.

-Wm Tate,
http://www.atimelikethis.us/

[Aaron Burr V. Mexico]

Obama is the better candidate....but that's because McCain is Bush 2.

Up until this week I was enthusiastically voting FOR Barack Obama, now I'm voting AGAINST John McCain....

Subtle but important difference....namely...

The Cake is a Lie.

[Web Smith]

Even the MSM special interest groups should be feeling a little uneasy about the tendency of both of these candidates to switch positions.

The more McCain talks the more unstable he proves himself to be. If he can publish a top ten list of ways to kill Iranians at a time when most of the country is against the war in Iraq, how do you know his real feelings about Israel?

Then comes Obama chanting change, change, change. Voting for the FISA bill creating turmoil in his blog is more of the same kind of change that we don't want. We are already seeing serious attacks on freedom of speech and freedom of religion in our state legislatures making it a hate crime to express traditional Christian moral beliefs. We don't need another man who doesn't respect freedom in the White House.

[AmericanFishingJournals.com]

The readers of American Fishing Journals would like to know where the candidates stand on key environmental issues. If you are qualified to speak on behalf of your candidate, please stop by and share your insight.

[Web Smith]

Even the MSM special interest groups should be feeling a little uneasy about the tendency of both of these candidates to switch positions.

The more McCain talks the more unstable he proves himself to be. If he can publish a top ten list of ways to kill Iranians at a time when most of the country is against the war in Iraq, how do you know his real feelings about Israel?

Then comes Obama chanting change, change, change. Voting for the FISA bill creating turmoil in his blog is more of the same kind of change that we don't want. We are already seeing serious attacks on freedom of speech and freedom of religion in our state legislatures making it a hate crime to express traditional Christian moral beliefs. We don't need another man who doesn't respect freedom in the White House.

[Kevin]

Yes look at how poor Bush's poll results were yet he "won". We have had to endure his presence for 8 years while our country's reputation deteriorates, the economy has gone into the toilet, and while there has been a total disregard for the people by Bush's machine. All the while, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, and Bush have simply been amused. I wonder why Rove is so amused...I bet he and his merry men have something they know about how the voting will go this time again...voting machines and no audit trail....hope we don't experience a rigged election again. I think we should have UN observers this time to be sure we aren't getting hosed.

[Sally White]

I agree, Obama has certainly run a very professional and smooth campaign organization. McCain's has taken the backseat and the only time they really get the spotlight is when its criticizing Obama, which is more publicity for Obama. I think that if a person can handle a campaign so well, surely he can run the country even better. So much for lack of experience, he's come out the better man. I'm supporting Obama. Go Obama!!! Visit WhyOBama08.org

[peter nevins]

I'll never forget the shock of having "mellow and groovy" friends vote for Reagan because he made them feel "safer." That can be the bottom line sometimes. Don't underestimate McCain!!! Donate to Obama today.

[Rex]

Obama is Great at it!

He is the best snake oil salesman since Bill Clinton!
Bill was very good. Hhe could baffle you with b.s. like no other.

But Obama bumps it up a notch!
He gets the same results and doesn't have to lie about the details!. He just omits them. and repeats the word change, change, change,
I will count to 3
When I snap my fingers you will wake up and vote for me.

Its genius!!!!!........ and so effective on weak minds.

[m.sullivan]

OBAMA; Younger,more drive,keener to learn.

[Kate Cooper]

Obama is running against the corporate media not John McCain. if he's doing better its because the American people are listening less and less to the monopolistic Repulican surrogates that he current Corporate media embrace and more to the Internet and emerging centerist talk radio. The only question for this election cycle is:
Will the voters in November be fooled again by the corporate media pro-Republican propaganda.

[JayBee]

I like Obama more so than McCain. I'd like to have a president who can and will look at all aspects of a situation, make a decision, and then if that dicision turns out to not be the right or best one, admit his mistake and look at the situation again.

All polititions are liars, but how and why they lie is the thing I look at most. Flip flopping is better than complete arrogance and ignorance.

[TL]

Some well-oiled political machine has convinced people that McCain is more like Bush than Obama. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Obama is so far to the left, that he's actually just to the right of many of Bush's influences. For example, Obama supported the 2005 Energy Policy Act when anti-Bushies like Feinstein, Boxer, Hillary and...McCain voted against it.
McCain has a record of being around. Obama does not, and therefore can't talk about Iraq when he wasn't around to vote for or against it. Obama's support is unfounded and is based on people's ignorance of what happened with the Line Item Veto business that McCain was all behind.

[Mary Chandler]

It's a shame that a univeral US poll can't be done, there are a great many McCain fans who never heard of the poll, I don't think it was equal to the population of this country.

[N. Otter]

Every Democratic strategist likes to say McCain is Bush II, but then they would have said that about any Republican candidate with perhaps the exception of Ron Paul. Actually McCain is the most different from Bush from all the Republican candidates who were running in the Republican primary with the exception again of Ron Paul. Of course Ron Paul didn't win, McCain did. A lot of people want to write off the McCain campagin but do not be so sure. Hispanics will support McCain overwhelmingly in the fall and so will the rust belt working class, the military and the elderly. Together this coalition of demographics could put McCain over the top against Obama's youthful supporters and Democratic elitists.

[Belle Chandler]

Speaking for myself and most of my black friends, we are very disapointed in Mr. Obama, he does talk down to us, just like Rev. Jackson said, and we resent it. What is he going to do for us when he gets in office, will his white half win out and throw us under the bus, like he did his white grandmother, when it was to his advantage. At least with Mr. McCain, he is an evil we know, as the saying goes, we know what to expect and how to circumvent it.

[Craig]

Obama is so far to the left that he is to the right of Bush? That does not even make sense. Is he far-left or far-right? That's like saying George W. Bush is such a bad president that he is the best president in the history of the United States!

I would agree that Obama does not vote with his party on every initiative, and has sometimes voted in the same way as the pro-Bush Congressmen. If anything, that shows that he is an INDEPENDENT thinker, unlike McCain who just follows his party 97% of the time. I can't say I agree with Obama all the time, but for the most part I think he is very smart, has not been in Washington long enough to fall under the influence of lobbyists (unlike someone else whose presidential campaign is virtually run by lobbyists) and will keep the American people's best interests in mind.

Anyone who is capable of doing research would know that even though Obama was not in the Senate when the Iraq war vote took place, he was vocally against it, making several public statements both in the Illinois legislature and to the media. At least Obama respects our troops enough to have a plan to bring them home through a phased and organized withdrawal, whereas McCain wants to keep them there 100 years.

[jon]

@Kate Cooper - - Just had to say, you're dead on!
I've been saying it all along, and continue to write the Obama Campaign, that Obama's opponent is the Media, not McCain.
It's not only due to the Corporate propaganda aspect, which is true, but the Media also wants a tight race... a tight race means better ratings, and more ad dollars.
The bottom line, though, the Media will do whatever it can, to elect McCain.
Imagine if Phil Gramm had been an Obama surrogate, and made his *whining* comments about the People?
It would be an endless attack on Obama.
So far, while it's been covered, it's being drowned out by the Jesse Jackson non-story.

[F. Woelke]

I hear a lot of talk from both candidates. I 'm waiting for one to come out with a serious plan on Sovling even one of our national problems. Immigration, Iraq, economy, health care, Control of drug entry in to the nation. Barack keeps saying he will get it all done with out taxing us. (Dream on) McCain says he's going to win the war in Iraq. (Dream on) We are hearing the same old things we hear every Election year I haven't seen any of it accomplished. We need to elect someone like Buffet, or Gates or one of a million other smart people in this country who know how to get things done, "Talking the Talk" is over with it's time for omeone to start "Walking the Walk" gentlemen.

[Lisa T.]

The Obama group has done a very good job appealing to voters superficial qualities. He has portray himself as Kennedy, Martin Luther King, God, etc. and as a person loved by all. Also his group has mastered the technique of portraying him as being loved and supported by great mass of variety of people, and then the weak-minded in order to feel important about themselves has jumped on his bandwagon.(I also think this is why he wants to go campaign in Germany. He wants to show whites a lot of their own is supporting him. Then, automatically the weak-minded will jump on his bandwagon.).

While Obama is doing these things, the McC. group have rolled-over and play dead.

[Joe]

> Up until this week I was enthusiastically voting FOR Barack Obama, now I'm voting AGAINST John McCain....

So you're mad about FISA, too, huh? I just saw a story about how Obama's fund raising is slowing down. I know that the FISA cave-in is my reason for stopping donations for the time being.

[pacificGatePost]

OBAMA CANNOT POSSIBLY MEET EXPECTATIONS, EVEN HIS OWN ---

Obama’s impossible road ahead:

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/07/why-obama-will-win-but-cant-deliver.html

[nathan118]

Obama rags on his own country. He's going to lecture me that I should speak two languages when the fool himself doesn't? Get off your soapbox Obama.

[Parkhillian]

Belle Chandler:

Gee, for a well spoken "black" person, it amazes me that you think Mr. Obama talks down to you.

Me thinks you are a troll. Black? I think not.

[CJ Learner]

I agree, in part, with Kate Cooper, 7-11-08, 10:31 AM: " . . . if he's (Obama’s) doing better its because the American people are listening less and less to the monopolistic Republican . . . "

Where I differ is, I believe, that American voters are plain and simply listening less and less - period!

Like so many in society today, the average person only hears what he or she wants to hear, and this bear very little resemblance to what is actually being said. If this were not so, how could people actually say that the Obama campaign is well-run? Sure, Obama may be charismatic, and even well-meaning - but I would hardly call his campaign "well-run". McCain's campaign had been fairly well-run until some idiot opened his mouth the other day with his "whiners" remark. However, nothing about McCain's positions on foreign affairs gives me confidence in America's future security.

However, none is this matters - Who is doing the best job trying to convince voters? Who is running the best campaign? Those questions are irrelevant, and equivalent to "Who has the best smoke and mirrors show?"

The only question of merit is: Which one, if either, of these candidates will serve this country with a positive, progressive, secure, and beneficial agenda for the majority of Americans?

Do any of you out there in "blogger-land" truly believe either Obama or McCain is the best person this country has to offer to do the unfathomably difficult job of President of the United States of America?

I don't. I'm disappointed that the "cream never rises to the top" any more. I so sad, and discouraged - maybe there isn't any cream. Even, if I try to be hopeful - I just cannot imagine in my wildest dreams that these 2 candidates are the best we have.

I'm a life-long, die-hard, Democrat (almost 60 years). However, I’ve never voted for a President just because he is a Democrat. I'm no poli-sci buff, however; I work hard at studying American History and current events, albeit mere amateur status.

I believe if one wants to be a functioning citizen of something as wonderful as our country - one MUST understand our past, - the foundations, and evolutions of our government, our people, our needs, our possibilities - and the threats thereto. One MUST also try to understand the world around them. Our country does not exist in a void. I also believe if we do not learn from the past we are doomed.

Yet, really - when was the last time we had a descent choice for President? It is not about the best person for the job -- it's politics. It always has been. It just seems, of late, so much more personally driven from financial backing and politically decided for sake of party unity, rather than what would benefit the country as a whole.

So, to my comment regarding the original subject "Voters Grade Obama and McCain" --- I spend hours every day reading news articles from sources all over the country, and some international, regarding this election – the benefit of retirement. I've been doing that every day for more than a year. My votes (based on my criteria of better suited for the job, not best campaign): "Obama D"; "McCain D-".

Where does that leave us people? I really want your opinions - give me something of substance, not campaign slogans. Don't refer me to an online source - I've probably already read it and I've made my opinion, as it stands today, rather clear.

Really, people - I'm begging you -- give me some reasons to vote for one of these candidates! All I have at the moment is "I believe it is my civic duty to cast an informed vote". I really believe that - but this is the first election in my life that I am struggling to convince myself to vote for either candidate.