Polls don't mean squat.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two opinion polls released showed Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) back in contention with President George W. Bush (news - web sites) in the US election race.
Bush had recently had a lead of up to 11 percentage points after the Republican convention at the start of September.
Less than seven weeks from the November 2 vote, a Harris Interactive poll for The Wall Street Journal gave Kerry a 48 to 47 percent lead over Bush, while a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed them tied at 46 percent.
The Pew center conducted two separate polls showing that Kerry erased his deficit.
Between September 8-10, 52 percent of registered voters supported Bush while 40 percent backed the Massachusetts senator.
The poll was taken one week after the Republican National Convention, which ended September 2, and as Kerry's records in Congress and Vietnam came under sustained attack.
The second Pew poll, conducted September 11-14, showed that Bush's lead had evaporated, giving each candidate 46 percent of support among voters.
Pew interviewed 1,972 registered voters, including 970 in the first survey and 1,002 in the second one.
Kerry regained his advantage over Bush on the economy, leading the president 46 to 40 percent in the second poll. They were previously tied at 44 percent on this key election issue.
Bush remains strong on who can best handle Iraq (news - web sites), leading 52 to 40 percent over Kerry, and the war on terrorism, with a 58 to 31 percent edge.
While Republican attacks depicting Kerry as a "flip-flopper" on key issues contributed to his tumble in post-convention polls, Bush "showed continued vulnerability on Iraq and the economy," Pew said in a report.
In the Harris Interactive poll, 51 percent said they do not believe Bush "deserves to be re-elected for another four years," compared with 45 percent who said they do, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The survey was the first by Harris Interactive since August, when Bush and Kerry each garnered 47 percent of the intended vote.
The September 9-13 poll of 1,018 adults has a three-percentage-point margin of error.
