Free Republic

We're down to the final week of the election, where we'd normally expect to see pollsters fine-tuning their samples in order to get the most predictive survey results ahead of the election. It's refreshing, therefore, to see the CBS/NYT/Quinnipiac partnership decide to buck that trend and stick with consistency. Their polls in the most hotly contested swing states of Ohio, Florida, and Virginia all show Barack Obama edging Mitt Romney --- as long as voter turnout resembles Obama's big win in 2008: President Obama has maintained a five-point lead in the crucial swing state of Ohio, according to a new...

Two weeks before Election Day, voters hold a sharply critical view of President Bush's record in office, but they have strong reservations about Senator John Kerry, leaving the race in a tie, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. Mr. Bush's job approval rating is at 44 percent, a dangerously low number for an incumbent president, and one of the lowest of his tenure

The good news for President Bush in the latest CBS News/New York Times poll is the razor-thin lead he gets in the horserace. The bad news in the poll is that his approval rating is in the low 40s, more Americans feel the country is on the wrong track and more voters dislike him than like him. John Kerry also has higher "unfavorable" than "favorable" ratings. The question is whether Kerry's marks matter in a campaign that is largely about Mr. Bush's performance. In the CBS/NYT survey, Mr. Bush leads Kerry 47-45 among likely voters, with Ralph Nader taking 2...