10/12 Daily Kos R2K Tracking Poll: Obama 53, McCain 40

by DemFromCT [courtesy of Daily Kos]

Today's Daily Kos Research 2000 tracking poll has Obama up over McCain 53-40. All trackers are data from three days prior to posting, with the R2K numbers from today (yesterday's numbers in parentheses) and the other trackers from yesterday (previous day's data). LV=likely voter, RV=registered voter.

                 Obama      McCain    MoE +/-   RV/LV
Today
Research 2000:  53 (52)    40 (40)    3         LV
Reuters/Zogby:  49 (48)    43 (44)    2.8       LV

Yesterday
Rasmussen:      52 (50)    45 (45)    2         LV
Diageo/Hotline: 50 (48)    40 (41)    3.2       LV
Gallup:         51 (51)    42 (41)    2         RV

On successive days in the R2K poll, Obama was up +14 Thurs, +12 Fri and +13 Sat. Post-debate polling shows no benefit for McCain (see below). Obama's percentage has been at or above 50 since 9/29. This represents Obama's largest lead in the R2K poll.

It's 49-53 for Obama in all the polls. And McCain? 40-45. The attacks that McCain and Palin launched have failed. In fact, Sarah Palin's fav/unfav is now a record 36/58 or - 22. That's Bush territory.

The above has relevance for Palin's so-called "bright future" in the Republican party. A loss, for example, and those fav/unfav numbers suggest otherwise. It makes it harder for Palin to hang a loss on McCain's neck when she's dropping like a stone herself.

Added: This helps to illustrate McCain's problems in winning. In addition to Obama's fav/unfav not budging over the last week, seniors are wondering "where's the beef?" in McCain's campaign:

From yesterday's Hotline poll:

Hail To The Victor. LVs overwhelmingly feel Obama won the 2nd debate. Among the 71% who watched, 53% say the Dem nominee prevailed, while just 14% say McCain. In a similarly timed sample of RVs after the 1st debate, 42% said Obama won and 25% said McCain.

Made The Grades. Obama scored considerably higher among debate watchers than McCain. 71% say Obama did an "excellent" or "good" job in the debate, while only 38% say the same of McCain. 27% say Obama did an "only fair" or "poor" job, while 59% say the same of McCain.

And here's a poll with an enviable record:

Over the past 52 years, students voting in the Weekly Reader Presidential Election poll have predicted the winner of the election 12 out of 13 times.

On Monday, September 22, the 14th Weekly Reader poll opens in thousands of classrooms across the nation -- and kids from kindergarten through high school once again will make their opinions heard.

Results available Oct 29.