Dante, this poll is believed to be the MOST OBJECTIVE and RESPECTED one out there, and here's what they had to say TODAY. Now, after reading it, please don't tell me tonight's debate isn't that important for BUSH or KERRY to WIN...
Reuters Poll: Bush and Kerry Tied Ahead of Debate
Wed Oct 13, 2004 07:02 AM ET
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- article specifics box ends --><!-- article text begins -->By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
TEMPE, Ariz. (Reuters) - President Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry remain deadlocked in the White House race going into their final debate, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.
Bush and Kerry held steady at 45 percent each in the latest three-day tracking poll, raising the stakes for Wednesday night's pivotal final debate in Tempe, Arizona.
The debate, the last big scheduled event in the campaign, should give the winner a critical boost in momentum for the final three-week push to the Nov. 2 election.
"The third debate is crucial," pollster John Zogby said, pointing out 7 percent of likely voters remain undecided ahead of the encounter.
Zogby said only 11 percent of those undecided voters felt Bush deserved to be re-elected and 40 percent thought it was time for someone new. Nearly half of the undecideds were uncertain whether Bush should get another term.
Whether Kerry can persuade those undecided voters he is up to the job of president and motivate them to go to the polls in November could be a key, Zogby said.
<b>The final debate, on the campus of Arizona State University, will focus on domestic issues like jobs, taxes and health care, which usually favor Democrats but have been overshadowed this year by the raging arguments over the Iraq war. </b>
Bush has stepped up his attacks on the Massachusetts senator's voting record in the past few weeks, labeling him a liberal who would raise taxes and burden the health care system with big doses of government regulation and bureaucracy.
Kerry responds that the first term of the Bush administration has produced fewer jobs, higher gas prices, bigger budget deficits and more uninsured people.
The poll of 1,232 likely voters was taken Sunday through Tuesday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The rolling poll will continue through Nov. 1 -- the day before the election.
A tracking poll combines the results of three consecutive nights of polling, then drops the first night's results each time a new night is added. It allows pollsters to record shifts in voter sentiment as they happen. The poll showed independent candidate Ralph Nader, blamed by some Democrats for drawing enough votes from Al Gore to cost him the election in 2000, picked up the support of 1.5 percent of likely voters. <!-- article text ends -->
