Poll: A Majority of voters say Obama is Running a Positive Campaign...Opposite true for McCain

[MadBadger]

Months of aggressive campaigning by both candidates have significantly altered the way voters perceive them - Senator John McCain is largely seen as someone who is spending more of his time attacking his opponent than spelling out what he would do as president, while Senator Barack Obama
continues to be seen as a candidate who is spending more of his time explaining what he would do as president rather than attacking his opponent, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. This was not the case earlier this summer. In early July, both candidates were thought to be
running positive campaigns.

In the latest poll, a majority of voters, 56 percent, said Mr. Obama is spending his time making it clear what he would do if elected, rather than attacking the Republican candidate. Most voters say the opposite of Mr. McCain. Only 38 percent of those polled said Mr. McCain was explaining what he would do as president, while 53 percent said he was attacking Mr. Obama. In July, 63 percent of the voters surveyed said Mr. McCain was running a positive campaign.

Partisans see the campaign of their own party’s candidate as positive, Democrats more so than Republicans. Thirty-one percent of Republicans describe Mr. McCain as attacking his opponent, along with 44 percent of independents and 76 percent of Democrats. Only 19 percent of Democrats and
36 percent of independents said Mr. Obama was attacking, rather than explaining, as did 55 percent of Republicans.

The telephone poll was conducted Sept. 21-24 with 844 registered voters nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. More results from this survey will be available later today at nytimes.com.


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/nytcbs-news-poll-going-negative/