Here are eight articles from both the US and international media about the US Presidential race. Highlights of each article provided with a link to the full article.
Undecideds Unlikely ‘Life Raft’ for McCain
By David Paul Kuhn writing for Politico.
The pool of undecided voters remains as large as one in 10, but John McCain can hardly rely on them to overtake Barack Obama. According to past election results, those voters who decided in the last week of a campaign are unlikely to break decisively for either candidate and dramatically alter Tuesday’s race.
In the past eight presidential contests, voters who made up their minds during the last week of the campaign never went for either ticket by large margins of 3-2 or 2-1, which potentially could tip the scales.
“There is likely no hidden life raft in the undecided vote for John McCain,” said Andy Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.
Pew recently conducted an internal analysis of its polls and concluded that undecided voters were likely to split about equally between McCain and Obama on Election Day, meaning the group is more evenly split between the two candidates than the electorate overall, Kohut said. In the coming days, Pew, like the Gallup poll, will finalize its best estimate for how undecided voters will cast their ballots.
It’s Time
The Economist endorses Senator Barack Obama.
For all the shortcomings of the campaign, both John McCain and Barack Obama offer hope of national redemption. Now America has to choose between them. The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America’s self-confidence. But we acknowledge it is a gamble. Given Mr Obama’s inexperience, the lack of clarity about some of his beliefs and the prospect of a stridently Democratic Congress, voting for him is a risk. Yet it is one America should take, given the steep road ahead.
Obama’s Prospects in Missouri May Hang on Economy, and Race
By Michael Finnegan in the Los Angeles Times.
Whether Obama or Republican rival John McCain carries Missouri depends in no small part on the nearly 250,000 voters of St. Charles County, a fast-growing working-class area. It would be tough for any Democrat to win in this culturally conservative county, where many voters oppose abortion rights and gay marriage. However, the troubled economy and Obama’s huge campaign operation have put the entire state in play.
The nominee is making two trips to Missouri in the campaign’s final week. He has 44 offices in the state, which President Bush won handily in 2004, compared with McCain’s 16. As for unpaid volunteers in Missouri, Obama has thousands.
Steven S. Smith, a professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis, said Obama’s campaign was the most elaborate any presidential candidate had ever mounted in Missouri. “The sheer number of campaign volunteers going door to door — get-out-the-vote, voter-registration efforts — has been beyond belief,” he said.
Obama also is spending three times as much as McCain on television ads in the state.
Missouri’s economic distress also has enhanced Obama’s prospects. In St. Charles, a county of 344,000 near the convergence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, rising home foreclosures attest to the tough times. So do the 10,000 new empty lots on the county’s exurban frontier: Developers leveled them to build houses but cast aside construction plans in the absence of buyers.
Still, race remains a potent force in the White House contest here, even as Obama’s top advisors argue the contrary.
“The truly undecided are not undecided because of race,” campaign manager David Plouffe said. “They’re undecided because they haven’t decided who’s best on taxes, healthcare and other issues.”
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