Politics on the Hudson

So Sen. Barack Obama’s recent overseas tour apparently didn’t help him with voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, as Arizona Sen. John McCain gained on him in those states, a Quinnipiac University poll today found.

Florida voters split 45–44 percent that a candidate’s position on the war in Iraq is more important than his energy policy, but voters in Ohio, 48–43 percent, and Pennsylvania, 49–40 percent, care more about energy policy.

While voters said that going to war in Iraq was the wrong thing to do, voters in each state support McCain’s plan to keep U.S. troops in Iraq with no fixed date for full withdrawal.

Florida and Ohio are now too close to call, the poll found. No one has been elected president since 1960 without taking two of those three largest swing states, Quinnipiac points out.
—Florida: Obama has 46 percent to McCain’s 44 percent, compared to a 47 – 43 percent Obama lead June 18.
—Ohio: Obama has 46 percent to McCain’s 44 percent, compared to a 48 – 42 percent Obama lead least time.
—Pennsylvania: Obama leads McCain 49 – 42 percent, compared to 52 – 40 percent.

By margins of 27 to 30 percentage points, voters in each state say Congress should agree with President Bush and allow offshore drilling for oil. McCain supports offshore drilling, while Obama opposes it.