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Missouri voters are frightened about the economy, hurting over high gas prices, disillusioned with the war in Iraq and convinced the nation is headed in the wrong direction.
Such a pessimistic view of the country is prompting many of them to turn to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. That's the political picture painted by the latest poll conducted for the Post-Dispatch and KMOV-TV (Channel 4) by Research 2000, a Maryland-based polling firm.
By significant margins, the 800 likely voters polled last week said they trust the expected Democratic presidential nominee more than his Republican rival, John McCain, when it comes to tackling many of the nation's domestic troubles.
A majority gave higher marks to McCain only when it comes to handling the war on terrorism. Pollster Del Ali says that backdrop largely explains why those polled slightly preferred Obama over McCain, 48 percent to 43 percent. The remaining 9 percent were undecided.
Obama's five-point edge is within the poll's margin of error of 3.5 percentage points for each number. That means similar polls could show results ranging from a two-point lead for McCain to a larger margin for Obama.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/politics/story/84EC6E3C5EAE4FF586257484000FDDED?OpenDocument