US presidential contest will be competitive in five key states

Washington, Sept.9 : Surveys have revealed that the presidential contest between John McCain and Barack Obama will be competitive in the key states of Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

According to Fox News, four of the five state polls show Obama and McCain within three percentage points of each other. In Ohio, however, McCain has a 51 to 44 percent advantage.

Citing the Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll as a source for its conclusions, the Fox News report concludes the following:

That McCain is trusted more than Obama in all five states.

That Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin draws higher "very favorable" ratings than any other candidate. In all states except Colorado, McCain enjoys a bigger margin among Republicans than Obama does among Democrats. In Colorado, they are even.

Economic issues are the top issue in all five states with national security matters a distant second.

That the number who would not be comfortable with Obama as president is higher in every state than the number saying the same about McCain.

That Obama has the edge among unaffiliated voters in three states, McCain in two. Nationally, unaffiliated voters are fairly evenly divided.

That Pennsylvania has more undecided voters than any other state The report also reveals what are the things to look out for during the contest:

The most significant thing to watch for in the coming week will be to see if McCain's convention bounce expands or recedes.

It will be interesting to see whether Obama retains an edge in Colorado, which might validate the decision to host his convention in Denver.

Finally, will McCain's higher favorability ratings eventually translate into more votes?

Rasmussen Reports conducted the five state telephone surveys in partnership with Fox News on September 7, 2008. A total of 500 likely voters were interviewed in each state.

ANI