Poll: Obama leads among Christians

Posted at 11:09 AM on August 12, 2008 by Tom Scheck (3 Comments)

A poll by the Barna Group, a Christian polling and resarch organization says Democrat Barack Obama maintains a nine point lead over Republican John McCain among Christians. The poll finds that the race is tightening.

Among the key findings -

1) Of the 18 faith groups identified in the polls, McCain is only leading among evangelicals and it's a narrow lead. Obama leads among the other 17 faith groups identified including the born again vote (Barna notes that would mark the first time in more than two decades that the born again vote has swung toward the Democratic candidate.

2) McCain has a narrow lead among evangelicals but a third say they're undecided and McCain's support is weakening among the group:

While some Christian voters seem to be questioning their early support for Obama, the McCain candidacy does not seem to be gaining momentum among evangelicals. Since June, the current level of support Sen. McCain has among evangelical voters has declined significantly (dropping from 78% to 61%).

The poll found that the Christian perspective is similar to that of the general voting public. Here are some interesting tidbits from George Barna:

-- When comparing the dimensions on which each candidate stands out in the eyes of voters, Sen. Obama emerged as the candidate of new ideas, for being black (mentioned as their reason for supporting him by 9%), for being different from George Bush (9%), and for his positions on health care (9%). In each case, the percentage of people naming those reasons substantially exceeded the percentage that identified those as reasons for their support of the Republican candidate.

Similarly, Sen. McCain stood out as being more likely to gain support related to his experience, knowing what the nation needs, for his position on taxes (9%), for being conservative (8%), for being a war hero (8%), and because of his military background (6%).

-- "It is unusual to see such significant movement within the core segments of the Christian community," George Barna explained. "While there is still a decided preference for Senator Obama, the more conservative element of the Christian population is slowly coming to grips with what an Obama presidency might be like. As the finer points of a wide range of issues are clarified by each nominee, the initial excitement about Senator Obama has lost some luster to an increasing number of people whose vote is influenced by their spiritual perspectives. If Sen. McCain converts such apprehensions into votes, this will be a closer race than many have anticipated."

Check the entire poll here.

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Comments (3)

Money and Sex for Political Ambitions

Adultery cast a shadow on a person's ethics. It does not necessarily mean that the offending person is a bad person but it defines one’s credibility and respect of the political office held or aspired for.

John McCain had a well-documented affair on his first wife, with his current wife. He even married her before a divorce was legally granted. Simply, because Cindy was young, beautiful and had money to support his political ambitions. But he then later went on to cheat on Cindy with a much young and beautiful lobbyist Vicki Iseman.

Vicki Iseman represented telecommunication companies on the Senate Commerce Committee that John chaired. They contributed tens of thousands of dollars to McCain's campaigns. In return, McCain championed de-regulation for them. He pressured the FCC to uphold marketing agreements that allows television companies to control two stations in the same city and introduced a bill to create tax incentives program for them. Two times, he tried to advance legislation that would permit a company to control television stations in overlapping markets. If John Edwards' political career is over, why isn't John McCain's? Is McCain credible enough to be trusted to serve as a President? Once a cheater, always a Cheater. My friends watch-out!

Posted by jesse | August 12, 2008 7:21 PM

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Is the Iseman thing proven? If so, I don't see how he can be a candidate.

Posted by Anthony M FitzGerald | August 13, 2008 3:54 AM

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The Iseman relationship was investigated by ABC
and the rendezvous dates had the pair in different places.
Apparently, Iseman was with her husband and family.

This a slanderous statement to repeat- as bad as Obama is a Muslim.

The first casualty in any conflict is truth !

Shame on you Jesse

Posted by doug | August 13, 2008 7:00 AM

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