Obama leads in four key states
He is ahead of McCain in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, along with Colorado, which Bush won in 2004.
pittsburgh, pa. -- As Democrat Barack Obama campaigned on economic issues today, polls released today showed him leading likely Republican presidential rival John McCain by five to 17 percentage points in four key states, including one captured by the GOP in 2004.
The polls, by Quinnipiac University in partnership with the Wall Street Journal and washingtonpost.com, show that Obama seems to be building a coalition of women, minorities and younger voters. Obama leads McCain by 49% to 44% in Colorado; 48% to 42% in Michigan; 54% to 37% in Minnesota; and 52% to 39% in Wisconsin.
The states represent 46 electoral votes, 37 of which went to Democratic candidate John F. Kerry in 2004. Colorado's nine electoral votes went to George W. Bush.
Today's polls continue a string of good news for Obama this week as several national polls show him running ahead of McCain by growing pluralities. The Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll showed Obama up by 12 points.
The polls show that voters think the economy is the major issue.
At a campaign forum at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh today, Obama traded ideas on energy, healthcare and schools with business, labor and academic leaders.
The group included the chief executive officers of General Motors and United States Steel Corp., along with the presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Service Employees International Union.
Also on the panel was retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, a former NATO supreme allied commander who is close to McCain but has been mentioned as a possible running mate for the likely Democratic presidential nominee.
Obama opened the Carnegie forum by laying out his energy, healthcare and education agenda, then asked each of 13 panelists for their thoughts.
"If you were setting federal policy, what do you think would be the most effective approach to ensure these exciting innovations are moving rapidly?" Obama asked Vinod Khosla after the Silicon Valley venture capitalist talked about a "radical revolution" in renewable-energy technology.
Investment in university research, Khosla responded, along with stable policy and making people believe it can happen.
Steve Case, the former chairman and chief executive officer of America Online, reminded Obama that government-funded research spurred development of the Internet and then the private marketplace took over.
