Presidential graphs over time

Want to see how far ahead or behind your preferred candidate for Presidency is? Look no further than the handy charts and graphs supplied by the New York Times. You can view graphs from national and state-wide polls from various sources (the one above is from NYT/CBS). It’s incredible how different some of these polls are, and I guess it all has to do with what types of questions are asked and who is asking them (and also to whom they are being asked).

All of the polls show McCain behind Obama in the polls, and analysts are saying that this is partially due to McCain’s recent negative personal attacks on Obama’s character. It turns out that most people, regardless of party-affiliation, don’t like it when you attack somebody’s personal character. And McCain is learning this first-hand as his numbers are sliding ever so gradually.

After several weeks in which the McCain campaign unleashed a series of strong political attacks on Mr. Obama, trying to tie him to a former 1960s radical, among other things, the poll found that more voters see Mr. McCain as waging a negative campaign than Mr. Obama. Six in 10 voters surveyed said that Mr. McCain had spent more time attacking Mr. Obama than explaining what he would do as president; by about the same number, voters said Mr. Obama was spending more of his time explaining than attacking.

Other reasons cited for the decline in polls for McCain is that some Republicans are not happy that he chose Sarah Palin as his VP running mate.

There’s the last and final Presidential debate tonight (hosted at Hofstra University in Long Island), and I’m hoping it doesn’t turn out as boring as the last town-hall styled one. Gosh, that town-hall was terrible.