Obama leads McCain in Florida and Ohio, poll says
Voters see the economy as the chief issue and Obama as the best man to handle it, according to a Times/Bloomberg poll. In Ohio, Obama leads 49% to 40%; in Florida, 50% to 43%.
Reporting from Washington — Barack Obama is leading Republican presidential rival John McCain in two battleground states, Florida and Ohio, where voters have more confidence in his ability to handle the troubled economy, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
In Ohio, a state that has been battered for years by unemployment and plant closings, Obama is leading McCain 49% to 40% among people likely to vote.
In Florida, a state that was considered a likely win for Republicans not long ago, McCain is trailing, 50% to 43%.
In both states, Obama, a Democrat, has opened commanding leads over McCain among women, young people, first-time voters and blacks and other minorities.
McCain is still viewed as far better equipped than Obama to deal with terrorism and the war in Iraq, because of his signature expertise in national security issues. But voters in Ohio and Florida do not see those issues as paramount, in light of the turmoil in the economy and on Wall Street.
The poll results undercut McCain's closing argument that Obama is no friend of working people such as "Joe the Plumber" -- the Toledo man who said he feared his taxes would rise if Obama were elected. In Ohio, the survey found, Obama led McCain among white working-class people by 52% to 38%.
"Barack Obama understands Joe the Plumber better than John McCain," said Theresa Riddle, a 48-year-old Republican in Springfield, Ohio, who participated in the survey and spoke in a follow-up interview. "When John McCain talks about the economy, he says nothing."
Others worry that Obama has too little experience to manage the far-reaching economic and financial crisis gripping the world.
"McCain's been in politics" for a long time, said Jerry Mills, a 40-year-old welder in Edgerton, Ohio, whose wife was just laid off. "Obama has been on one side of the city of Chicago. Going from Chicago to the entire U.S. is a big jump."
Still, Obama has impressed more voters as having the temperament and personality to be president: Nearly six in 10 respondents in each state said he was temperamentally better suited than McCain.
Both candidates have begun locking down some of their supporters in early voting in these two battlegrounds. Among those who have already voted in Ohio, Obama has a big lead: 57% to 35%. But McCain is slightly ahead in Florida among early voters, 49% to 45%.
