Poll: Floridians slightly favor McCain over Obama

Sunday, September 21, 2008

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A recent poll shows that Florida voters favor McCain by a slight margin.

(Bay News 9) -- An exclusive St. Petersburg Times/Bay News 9 poll finds that Floridian voters favor McCain by a narrow margin.

With a little more than six weeks left until Election Day, most voters have made up their minds about the presidential candidates, but there are some who are still keeping their options open. One thing the poll results show for certain, though, is that the 2008 presidential election is a tight race.

The number of those polled who said they would vote for Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin is only slightly larger than those who said they planned to vote for Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Most of those who said they would vote for each ticket said they were very certain, while a small number said they were "somewhat certain" or that they still might change their minds.

Republican political analyst and former Gov. Bob Martinez said he isn't surprised by those results.

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"I think the debates this year will mean more than ever before because there's a great deal of confusion on what these two candidates stand for," he said.

The majority of the people polled said they hope a presidential candidate will stand for stronger economy. When asked what they considered to be the most important issue for the next president and Congress to deal with, nearly half said the economy. The war in Iraq and terrorism were second and third, with each issue drawing about a third as many respondents as did the economy.

When it comes to handling the economy, almost half of those polled said they trust Sen. Obama more when it comes to economic issues. Fewer said they trust Sen. McCain with the economy.

Democratic political analyst Bob Buckhorn said he thinks the numbers are very telling.

"The economy will decide who the next President of the United States is," Buckhorn said. "Whoever is in the best position in the eyes of the public to deal with that economy, to manage that economy, get the economy back on track, will be our next president."

Buckhorn also said that part of the reason he thinks Sen. Obama leads Sen. McCain on the economy stems from general disappointment with the Bush administration and the decisions that were made over the last few years.

At the same time, Buckhorn also points out that Sen. McCain's strength is foreign policy. Those polled agreed with his assessment by a wide margin.

When it comes to another hot topic - energy costs - the numbers were more evenly split, with Sen. Obama slightly leading Sen. McCain in this area.

One topic that was less evenly split, however, was that of affordable health care. Nearly twice as many of those polled said they trust Sen. Obama to make health care more affordable than they do Sen. McCain.

Eight hundred residents across Florida participated in the St. Petersburg Times-Bay News 9 exclusive statewide poll.

For complete results, tune to Bay News 9 at the top of the hour, starting at 5 o'clock on Your Evening News. Bay News 9 will have more poll results Sunday evening.

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