A new Wall Street Journal poll finds that John McCain trails Barack Obama by six percentage points in a head-to-head match up. But when Ralph Nader and Bob Barr are thrown into the mix, Obama opens up a 13-point lead:
In a head-to-head match up between Barack Obama and John McCain in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, Obama is holding steady with a 47%-41% advantage. But what happens when Ralph Nader is thrown in the mix? Obama’s lead is strengthened to 48%-35%, with Nader nabbing 5% and Libertarian candidate Bob Barr registering at 2%. Still, WSJ pollsters caution that those numbers may not be as shocking as they first appear… “If all [voters] want to do is vote against Obama…then maybe Nader is just as good a vehicle as McCain,” Newhouse reasoned. “The anti-Obama vote is camping with John McCain now, but given other alternatives there’s a chance they could go somewhere else.” Hart agreed. “It’s not about these other candidates,” he said of Nader and Barr, “All it is, is an indication that Barack Obama holds onto his vote while the McCain vote is the one most likely to move.” Hart also voiced skepticism that Nader’s support was anywhere near as strong as the poll indicates. “Ralph Nader always looks good before people get ready to vote,” he said, it’s “‘Oh yeah, I know the name,’…but when they get down to it…they are going to be moving away from Nader as they have before.”
