NBC/WSJ Poll: Obama Holds Lead, Only 14% Of McCain Supporters "Excited"

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll is out tonight. Some key highlights:

-- Barack Obama leads John Mcain by 6 percent, 47-41, a number unchanged since last month's poll. But when Ralph Nader and Bob Barr are added as options, Obama's lead doubles to 13 points.

Obama 48
McCain 35
Nader 5
Barr 2

-- McCain has a slight edge, 46-41, when respondents were asked to identify the "safer" choice for president. But Obama is seen widely as the "riskier" choice, by a margin of 55-35.

-- McCain faces a major enthusiasm gap. Only 14 percent of his supporters say they are "excited" about him, versus 44 percent for Obama. For McCain, 43 percent describe him as the "lesser of two evils," versus 22 percent for Obama.

-- On a key issue of the day, Americans side with Obama: 60 percent believe a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq is a good idea; 30 percent do not.

-- As Eric Kleefeld notes, "Huge majorities say Obama is more likable, more compassionate and able to understand average people, offers hope and optimism for the future, and would improve America's standing in the world. But at the same time, McCain has his own lop-sided majorities on being a good commander-in-chief, and on being knowledgeable and experienced enough to handle the presidency."

More breakdown of the poll from MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and NBC News political director Chuck Todd:

Comments

[Philson86]

I don't understand why John McCain is considered such a maverick. He's voted with the right around 95% of time. If you like the policies of the right you should like McCain. He made a few non right wing votes, such as immigration, campaign finance, and opposing the Bush tax cuts, but he's backed away from them. He's even started pandering to religous agents of intolerence. Are these few issues big enough to justify the label "maverick?" I liked him before I saw his record. He is definately to the right of center.

[lucky54]

I guess the average age of McClone supprters as over 70 and is hard to be excited at this age. You have to watch the bypasses, depends changed on time, all the meds taken ... naps to catch up with. Who has a time for excitement, and who is willing to take the risk ??

[Vantunow]

I don't get how National Polls are so close.

EVERY breakdown shows HUGE leads for Obama.

Huge lead amongst women, huge lead amongst Latinos, huge lead among Blacks, yet somehow he is tied in National Polls.

Even if you look at State Polls, in plenty of Red States Obama is leading, and he is leading BIG in Blue States.

Only Blue State where McCain is threatning is Michigan.

Numbers don't add up. Something is wrong here.

[elr50]

What is WRONG is that most polls are done on land line phone lines. Most older people have land line phones, and they tend to be Republican. Younger and progressive voters have CELL phones, and they are not polled. And they tend to be Democratic. I don't know ANYONE voting for McCain except my conservative next door neighbors-and they still have a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker on their van. I don't speak to them.

[saywha]

Barack Obama is a man with a White mother and White grandparents and Black people give him 90% of their votes. So many White people, however, can only see that he has a Black father and Black grandparents and therefore will give him 0% of their votes. And, I'll bet practically all of them consider themselves to be "Christians". How truly sad! The funny thing is, Jesus was probably Barack's color. (Look it up in the Scriptures).

[GerryS]

I would have thought that more than 14% of Pappy's supporters took "Viagra" regularly-

[letsbepeaceful]

HuffPost's Pick

well, for those of you who don't know anyone voting for Obama and are concerned - get out there and talk to people. Ask why they are voting for someone else (usually it's something like Obama's 'strange' background, national security, religious issues, etc. ) Make a list of Rep-gaffes and counter them with facts that can be backed up. Be sure you have a quick and simple explanation for some of Obama's issues with conservatives (wright, bitter, etc.). I've done that and gotten a few 'hmmm..I didn't know that' and "I didn't see it that way" answers. Might not change their minds the first time but we can try to make them think rather than react.

[Grunty1]

"McCain has his own lop-sided majorities on being a good commander-in-chief, and on being knowledgeable and experienced enough to handle the presidency."

Given the fact Mc'Cain disproves all of these whenever he speaks, one has to assume that only "low information" voters would say this.

[terramartom]

The problem is that your polls do not really show what the actual numbers are. In order to sell, news, the media wants the American public to think it is a close race when in fact Senator Obama is beating McBush overwhelmingly. It is not even close.
Your polls are neither scientific or remotely accurate. The real numbers are more like 75% for Obama, and 20% for McBush, and 5% don't care.
McBush offers more of the same, because war for profit is great business for his friends in the Military Industrial complex, in Wall Street, Mortgage meltdown arena, and something for the bigots at Fox news.
Senator Obama offers not just Hope, but new direction for a better future for America and the World.

[donttasemebro]

I would like for this to be true, but wishing for it does not make it so. I agree that the MSM are only interested in selling the "horse race", but there is no reason to believe that the polls are way out of line. Certainly nothing like the numbers you mention. Source?

[Krikkit]

What that poll failed to get at is that those 14% of supporters who said they were excited about McGaffe were lying.

Yawn.

[KingMaker]

lol!!! that was funny..........I needed that.

[DaOne]

I hope that, in the debates, moderators bring up all these interesting quips from McCain & Co. and demand a full explanantion and how they jive with the "respectful campaign" nonsense he's tried to sell.

[JerryTheAngel]

These polls are not capturing reality. They are not measuring who is paying attention to or following the summer campaign closely.

We know that every night Cable news has about 4 million viewers between CNN, FOX, & MSNBC. We know that approximately 20 million people watch the 30 minute nightly network newscast. That's 25 million people. They expect around 130 million people to vote this year.

Why don't these polls ask "How many of you watch Cable News at least 3 times a week, Mon - Fri? Because it would embarrass the news outlets that report these polls ALL THE TIME. Probably around 3 percent of the electorate.

Sure there are people who are following this SUMMER campaign on the Internet. Let's take this blog. A "hot" topic may get 5000 posts. Is blogging like talk radio where they estimate only around 10 percent will even call into a show? Do only 10 percent actually post here and the other 90 percent just read it?

Even when the fall comes, how does the avg voter engage in the campaign? Will the debates get half of the voters to watch, which would be around 60 million? Watch this number very carefully, if the debates score Super Bowl like ratings (100 million)then you have something to gauge in the polls following the debates. Polls are for the die hard political junkies. They mean nothing because they can't measure the percentage of voters who are fully engaged and following the campaigns.

[donttasemebro]

I would like to believe that people who are actually paying attention to what is going on in this country would break overwhelmingly for O. The problem is that come election day, a majority of voters will still not have paid enough attention. They will remain "low information voters" until the end, and vote on some meaningless standard or outright lie that's been put in their heads by repubes.
Repubes know they can count on these voters, exactly because they don't pay attention.

[Exit]

McCain supporters are just people who are "voting against the black guy.". Nobody actually likes McCain.

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

I believe the number is 14,not 14%,just 14.Those people are part of his 257 known relatives without a job.

[bascombe]

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[bascombe]

MSNBC/FUX poll?
Is that what they meant?