LYNCHBURG, Va. — Barack Obama’s campaign Wednesday said that despite recent polls showing he and John McCain are in a statistical dead heat, the Democratic presidential candidate isn’t making any changes and is sticking to his current strategy.
McCain, who has launched a number of TV ads over the past few weeks portraying Obama as inexperienced, liberal and a cult of personality, has steadily narrowed the gap between himself and Obama, according to polls released this week.
While McCain is solidifying his base, Obama faces challenges and is shedding voters he held a month ago as he heads into next week’s Democratic National Convention.
Some of that success may be chalked up to McCain’s attacks, but also his sharper focus on supporting offshore drilling — a position he only recently adopted.
Regardless, the Obama campaign appears less than panicked and is going forward with what it says has worked in the past, as well as relatively new, sharp attacks on McCain.
“If we ran the campaign based on polls, we would’ve dropped out a year ago,” said spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who was traveling with the candidate. “We will continue to introduce him across the country and make the tough contrasts with John McCain.”
Those contrasts started in earnest in the past few days when Obama returned from a Hawaii vacation. The timing is no accident, his campaign said, because as summer ends, people are starting to pay attention to the race.
As a result, Obama released a 30-second ad in Colorado and a number of other battleground states Wednesday that touts his plan to cut taxes for the middle class and contends John McCain’s plan gives tax breaks to the oil industry and other corporations. On the campaign trail, Obama continues to tie McCain with the “failed policies” of President Bush.
Additionally, many political observers have noted that Obama is likely to get a bump after he announces his running mate, expected this weekend, and again after the convention.
But he goes into crunch time with some challenges.
Surveys indicate that the public still questions Obama’s patriotism and whether he has enough experience to be president.
A recent Pew Research Center survey showed Obama leading McCain by 3 percentage points. Two months ago, Obama led by 8 points.
And a Reuters/Zogby poll released Wednesday showed Obama trailing McCain by 5 percentage points — a “dramatic reversal” from the same survey conducted last month showing Obama up by 7 percentage points, according to John Zogby. Obama lost support across the board — from Catholics, younger voters, women and independents.
“Conservatives were supposed to be the bigger problem for McCain,” Zogby said. “Obama still has work to do on his base. At this point McCain seems to be doing a better job with his.”
McCain is also not sitting idly by as he is attacked. He tried to portray Obama as “testy” Wednesday after Obama said the Arizona senator was questioning his patriotism.
And a new McCain radio ad slaps Obama as a tax-and-spend liberal.
“Celebrities like to spend their millions,” the ad says. “Barack Obama is no different. Only it’s your money he wants to spend.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
Karen Crummy: 303-954-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com
