Republicans take one pc lead over Democrats

Washington, Sept 1 (PTI) On the eve of a watered down Republican Convention in St Paul, Minnesota, a national poll suggests that the race for the White House remains dead even.

According to CNN/Opinion Research Corp poll, released Sunday, showed that the Obama-Biden ticket was leading the McCain-Palin ticket by one point, 49 percent to 48 percent, a statistical dead heat.

The latest survey was conducted from Friday through Sunday, after the conclusion of the Democrats' show in Denver and after Senator John McCain chose Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

A previous CNN poll, taken just one week earlier, suggested the race between Senators McCain and Barack Obama was tied at 47 percent each.

"The Convention, particularly Obama's speech, seems to be well-received. And the selection of Sarah Palin as the Grant Old Party (G.O.P.) running mate, also seems to be well-received. So why is the race still a virtual tie? Probably because the two events created equal and opposite bounces, assuming that either one created a bounce at all," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

"Sixty-four percent rated Obama's acceptance speech as excellent or good, giving it significantly higher marks than any other recent acceptance speech. The Democratic Party's favourable ratings went up, and the G.O.P.'s favourable ratings went down. Historically speaking, the convention was better than some and worse than others in the public's mind — not a home run, but a hit nonetheless," says Holland.

The poll has showed that 40 percent of Americans are not familiar with Palin but 38 percent of those questioned viewed her favourably and 21 percent unfavourably.

And at a time when Senator McCain has thought of choosing Governor Palin with an eye on the women voters, men appear to have a slightly favourably opinion of Palin than women -- 41 percent of men view her favourably, five points higher than women.

The CNN poll has shown that 52 percent have rated the
selection of Palin as excellent or pretty good; 46 percent
rate it as fair or poor; but 50 percent have maintained that
she is unqualified to assume the presidency if that becomes
necessary. But 45 percent say she is prepared for the White
House.

The latest survey has also shown that the choice of
Governor Palin may have minimal effect on the race for the
White House - nearly six in 10 Americans say Palin's selection
as McCain's running mate will have no effect on their vote;
one in five say it makes them more likely to vote for McCain;
one in five say it makes them less likely.

Significantly three fourths of all voters think Senator
McCain chose a female running mate specifically because he
thought adding a woman to the Republican ticket would help him
win in November.

But there is some sobering news for the Republican
contender if he believed that the choice of Governor Palin is
going to boost the share of the women vote.

"Women now appear slightly more likely to vote for Obama
than they did a week ago, 53 percent now, compared to 50
percent. But McCain picked up a couple of points among men.
More important, McCain solidified his party's base with the
Palin selection, dropping Obama's share of the Republican vote
six points to just five percent now. The Palin selection did
not help among women — that may come later — but it did appeal
to Republican loyalists " Holland said.