The LA Times just released the results of their recent presidential candidate polling.
In a hypothetical matchup, the poll gave Illinois Sen. Obama 46% to McCain's 40%, with 9% undecided.
Clinton led McCain 47% to 38%, with 11% undecided. The nationwide poll, conducted May 1 through Thursday and released Friday, had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The real big news from the poll, though, comes from voters views on who's best to handle the nation's economy, now identified as the single biggest concern among voters.
...among the 78% of voters who said they believe the economy has slid into a recession, 52% would vote for Obama, compared with 32% for McCain. A Clinton-McCain matchup showed nearly identical results.
Senator McCain starts this race with a disadvantage; the perception he will continue the disastrous Bush Administration fiscal policies. He's also done himself no favors with his daily changing economic policy statements on earmarks, corporate taxes and deficit reduction.
I suspect Senator McCain formulated his campaign strategy portraying himself as the Iraq war hawk back when the economy seemed relatively stable. Now that the economy has replaced Iraq as the number one issue and Iraq has become less important to voters, the McCain camp has been unable to provide a compelling narrative the Senator is the right guy to manage that floundering economy.
And, clearly, voters have been paying attention.
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