STAN THE MAN… An email from Kerry campaign pollster Stan Greenberg that came my way today. It’s got an obvious buck-it-up spin to it, but I also think it’s basically right. Here’s an excerpt:
The stability in this poll reflects the overall stability of the race for president. This past week, George Bush polled 47.9 percent as the average of the public polls. That represents only a .5 point change compared to the prior week. Indeed, if one looks at the polls released Saturday and including polling after the release of the Bin Laden tape, Bush?s vote stands at 48 percent in one (Newsweek), 47 percent in one (Fox), and 46 percent in two (Zogby/Reuters and TIPP). That is a weaker result than for the polls released earlier in the week and prior to last weekend.
(These results are based on the results for registered, when available, as that is consistent across polls and has been a better predictor of the final outcome.)
Kerry?s vote was also stable at 46.4 percent on average, up .1 percent compared to the previous week. That is a dead-even race, where the undecided will play the final role, as they almost always break heavily against the incumbent.
The undecided in the race is also stable. During this week, the average of the public polls was 4.4 percent. The polls completed for Saturday have an average undecided of 6 points. There is no evidence of undecided narrowing on this weekend or as result of recent events.
The Democracy Corps combined polls as of Friday showed that the undecided (prior to being pushed to a preference) leaned toward the Democrats by two-to-one and favored a significant change in direction over continuing Bush?s direction by 58 to 29 percent, also two-to-one.
The tracking for the Kerry campaign, conducted for the whole battleground and in key battleground states at the end of the week, including Friday night, show Kerry with a clear and stable lead.
Bottom line, amidst the intensity of campaign?s final days, it is important to keep one?s eye on the stability and structure of this race, with Bush still short of what he needs to win.
