Pennsylvania 6-5000!
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Pa. Poll Shows Bush Losing Ground to Dems
By WILL LESTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Democrats are gaining ground on President Bush in Pennsylvania, a swing state that Bush has visited almost two dozen times since he became president.
Bush's job approval in Pennsylvania has slipped to 51 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, down from 60 percent in August and 67 percent in April. In the survey, 44 percent of registered voters disapproved of the president, who lost Pennsylvania to Al Gore in 2000.
With its 21 electoral votes, the state is a prime target for both Bush and the Democrats. In head-to-head matchups, Democratic candidates run much stronger against Bush than they did in August. Bush led Wesley Clark, 48-43 percent; Connectict Sen. Joe Lieberman, 50-44 percent; and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, 50-43 percent. The president outdistanced Howard Dean, 51-41 percent, and Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt, 50-42 percent.
Bush had held leads ranging from 16-23 percentage points against top Democratic candidates in early August.
The poll of 1,116 registered voters was taken Oct. 9-13 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The charges and countercharges were hardly new, echoing the complaints that the rivals have made about the former Vermont governor in debates and on the campaign trail. But they reflected the effort by Gephardt and Kerry to undercut Dean, who is battling Gephardt for the lead in Iowa polls.
Kerry likened Dean to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., the personification of right-wing Republicans whom Democrats have demonized, for supporting limits on the growth in Medicare spending during the 1990s. Gephardt argued that Medicare cannot be cut to balance the budget.
Dean responded to the criticism, saying, "I don't intend to have a debate over who said what seven years ago."
Six candidates participated in the forum as they courted favor with the 750 members of the AARP.
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South Carolina Democrats have solved the thorny problem of where to hold a presidential debate in January.
Organizers had planned a Jan. 29 debate in Greenville County, but the county does not recognize the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. State Democrats said Wednesday they will hold the debate at a performing arts center in the city of Greenville, which does honor the holiday.
The 90-minute debate, which will be broadcast by MSNBC, NBC Radio and in-state NBC affiliates, will take place five days before the the state's first-in-the-South Democratic primary and two days after the New Hampshire primary.
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An online political activist group is criticizing President Bush's $87 billion request for Iraq and Afghanistan in a television ad that will begin airing on New York and Washington broadcast and cable outlets Thursday.
The commercial is part of MoveOn.org's effort to defeat the supplemental spending bill pending in Congress. The ad, which costs $57,000, will air through Saturday.
In the spot, an announcer argues that Bush misled the country and describes ways the money can be spent domestically.
"We could have built 10,000 new schools. Or hired almost 2 million new teachers. We could have rebuilt our electric grid. We could have insured more of our children," the announcer says. The images of children, teachers and a woman reading by a flickering light illustrate the point.
"If there's money for Iraq, why isn't there money for America?" the announcer asks.
On the Net: scdp.org |
