US goes to polls today
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, Nov 03: The United States goes to polls today (November 04).
Democratic Party presidential candidate, Barack Obama has established a commanding lead over his Republican Party rival John McCain by nine percentage point in the Gallup poll conducted yesterday. Barring a last minute miracle, Obama is set to record a landslide victory tomorrow.
The Obama victory is going to be large and sweeping, the pollsters are predicting.
Witnessing a huge swing in favour of Obama which McCain refuses to acknowledge in public, the Republican Party nominee is appealing fervently not to allow the Democratic Party to control both the White House and the Congress. Besides the White House, up for grabs in tomorrow's polls will be 33 Senate seats, all 435 House of Representative seats and several posts of state governors.
Democrats now have 51 Senate seats and 235 seats in the House of Representatives. Democrats now require nine more Senate seats to prevent Republicans from indukging in filibustering. The Democratic Party according to various polls, is set to enlarge their seats both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.
Obama campaign team has warned supporters against complacency betraying fears that voters could turn out in lower numbers on the assumption that the result is a foregone conclusion. The prospect of a stridently Democratic Congress has unnerved the Republicans.
Poll watchers are anticipating a record turn-out based on the unprecedented enthusiasm in early voting in some states and surge in registration among the African-American voters.
The overwhelming majority of South Asians support Obama but there is a sizeable number particularly Bangladeshi-American who will vote for McCain arguing that he has adopted a daughter from Bangladesh and it was during Republican presidency that the immigration laws were eased.
It has been a long and punishing election trail for Obama. He announced his candidacy in February 2007 and since then he has been passing through a gruelling time first combating rival Hillary Clinton in a very tough battle in the party primaries and then against his Republican Party rival John McCain.
Barack Obama has collected a record breaking $640 million for his campaign fund. It is been the most expensive and longest election campaign in American history. Obama's war chest is $400 million heftier than that of McCain.
The United States is unhappy, divided and foundering both at home and abroad. Its self-belief and values are under attack, wrote the Economist. The cack-handed way in which George Bush has prosecuted his wars on terror has left America less feared by its enemies and less admired by its friends than it once was, the same paper wrote.
Whatever little he is leaving, President Bush has made sure that his successor gets an impregnable security arrangement that will not catch him napping like he was in 2001 terrorist attacks. Both McCain and Obama have been given intelligence briefings about wars in Iran and Afghanistan and security arrangement to thwart terrorist attacks.
Michael Chertoff, homeland security secretary was quoted as saying that ' US does not have any information about any terrorist attack during transition.
Reuters adds from Washington: Democrat Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain in six of eight key battleground states one day before the U.S. election, including the big prizes of Florida and Ohio, according to a series of Reuters/Zogby polls released on Monday.
Obama holds a seven-point edge over McCain among likely U.S. voters in a separate Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby national tracking poll, up one percentage point from Sunday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
Obama heads into Tuesday's voting in a comfortable position, with McCain struggling to overtake Obama's lead in every national opinion poll and to hold off his challenge in about a dozen states won by President George W. Bush in 2004.
The new state polls showed Obama with a one-point lead in Missouri and two-point lead in Florida, within the margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. But Obama also holds leads in Ohio, Virginia and Nevada -- all states won by Bush in 2004.
The five states where Obama is ahead have a combined 76 electoral votes. Along with states won by Democrat John Kerry in 2004, they would give Obama 328 electoral votes -- far more than the 270 needed to win the White House.
Obama also leads by 11 percentage points in Pennsylvania, which McCain has targeted as his best chance to steal a state won by Kerry in 2004.
McCain leads Obama by 5 points in Indiana and by one point in North Carolina -- both states won by Bush in 2004.
"Obama's lead is very steady. He could be looking at a big day on Tuesday," said pollster John Zogby. "These are all Republican states except Pennsylvania, and that does not look like it's going to turn for him."
In Florida, the biggest prize being fought over on Tuesday with 27 electoral votes, Obama leads McCain by 48 per cent to 46 per cent. The two were running dead even at 47 per cent one week ago.
In Ohio, the state that decided the 2004 election with a narrow win for Bush, Obama has opened a six-point edge. He also has a six-point lead on McCain in Virginia and an eight-point advantage in fast-growing Nevada.
Obama leads McCain by a statistically insignificant one point, 47 per cent to 46 per cent, in Missouri. McCain has the same one-point edge in traditionally Republican North Carolina.
NEW YORK, Nov 03: The United States goes to polls today (November 04).
Democratic Party presidential candidate, Barack Obama has established a commanding lead over his Republican Party rival John McCain by nine percentage point in the Gallup poll conducted yesterday. Barring a last minute miracle, Obama is set to record a landslide victory tomorrow.
The Obama victory is going to be large and sweeping, the pollsters are predicting.
Witnessing a huge swing in favour of Obama which McCain refuses to acknowledge in public, the Republican Party nominee is appealing fervently not to allow the Democratic Party to control both the White House and the Congress. Besides the White House, up for grabs in tomorrow's polls will be 33 Senate seats, all 435 House of Representative seats and several posts of state governors.
Democrats now have 51 Senate seats and 235 seats in the House of Representatives. Democrats now require nine more Senate seats to prevent Republicans from indukging in filibustering. The Democratic Party according to various polls, is set to enlarge their seats both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.
Obama campaign team has warned supporters against complacency betraying fears that voters could turn out in lower numbers on the assumption that the result is a foregone conclusion. The prospect of a stridently Democratic Congress has unnerved the Republicans.
Poll watchers are anticipating a record turn-out based on the unprecedented enthusiasm in early voting in some states and surge in registration among the African-American voters.
The overwhelming majority of South Asians support Obama but there is a sizeable number particularly Bangladeshi-American who will vote for McCain arguing that he has adopted a daughter from Bangladesh and it was during Republican presidency that the immigration laws were eased.
It has been a long and punishing election trail for Obama. He announced his candidacy in February 2007 and since then he has been passing through a gruelling time first combating rival Hillary Clinton in a very tough battle in the party primaries and then against his Republican Party rival John McCain.
Barack Obama has collected a record breaking $640 million for his campaign fund. It is been the most expensive and longest election campaign in American history. Obama's war chest is $400 million heftier than that of McCain.
The United States is unhappy, divided and foundering both at home and abroad. Its self-belief and values are under attack, wrote the Economist. The cack-handed way in which George Bush has prosecuted his wars on terror has left America less feared by its enemies and less admired by its friends than it once was, the same paper wrote.
Whatever little he is leaving, President Bush has made sure that his successor gets an impregnable security arrangement that will not catch him napping like he was in 2001 terrorist attacks. Both McCain and Obama have been given intelligence briefings about wars in Iran and Afghanistan and security arrangement to thwart terrorist attacks.
Michael Chertoff, homeland security secretary was quoted as saying that ' US does not have any information about any terrorist attack during transition.
Reuters adds from Washington: Democrat Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain in six of eight key battleground states one day before the U.S. election, including the big prizes of Florida and Ohio, according to a series of Reuters/Zogby polls released on Monday.
Obama holds a seven-point edge over McCain among likely U.S. voters in a separate Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby national tracking poll, up one percentage point from Sunday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
Obama heads into Tuesday's voting in a comfortable position, with McCain struggling to overtake Obama's lead in every national opinion poll and to hold off his challenge in about a dozen states won by President George W. Bush in 2004.
The new state polls showed Obama with a one-point lead in Missouri and two-point lead in Florida, within the margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. But Obama also holds leads in Ohio, Virginia and Nevada -- all states won by Bush in 2004.
The five states where Obama is ahead have a combined 76 electoral votes. Along with states won by Democrat John Kerry in 2004, they would give Obama 328 electoral votes -- far more than the 270 needed to win the White House.
Obama also leads by 11 percentage points in Pennsylvania, which McCain has targeted as his best chance to steal a state won by Kerry in 2004.
McCain leads Obama by 5 points in Indiana and by one point in North Carolina -- both states won by Bush in 2004.
"Obama's lead is very steady. He could be looking at a big day on Tuesday," said pollster John Zogby. "These are all Republican states except Pennsylvania, and that does not look like it's going to turn for him."
In Florida, the biggest prize being fought over on Tuesday with 27 electoral votes, Obama leads McCain by 48 per cent to 46 per cent. The two were running dead even at 47 per cent one week ago.
In Ohio, the state that decided the 2004 election with a narrow win for Bush, Obama has opened a six-point edge. He also has a six-point lead on McCain in Virginia and an eight-point advantage in fast-growing Nevada.
Obama leads McCain by a statistically insignificant one point, 47 per cent to 46 per cent, in Missouri. McCain has the same one-point edge in traditionally Republican North Carolina.