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Kerry behind Bush in new poll

Kerry behind Bush in new poll

A new poll released Tuesday shows that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is losing his advantage--or even slipping behind George W. Bush--in a number of battleground states. Those states include six of the seven swing states that Democrat Al Gore won in 2000, The Miami Herald reports. In addition, the Knight Ridder-MSNBC poll found that "Bush's supporters like him more than Kerry backers like their candidate," the Herald reported. What may partly help explain Bush's appeal is his call to ban gay marriage, as a majority of likely voters support banning gay marriage in the five Gore-2000 states that were questioned about it: Iowa, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Still, the biggest concerns among voters in those states is terrorism and national security. In all these states, voters preferred Bush over Kerry, by roughly 3-1, to keep them safe from terrorist attacks, the newspaper reported. "As of now, George W. Bush clearly holds the upper hand in the Electoral College battle," Brad Coker, who conducted the polls for the firm Mason-Dixon, told the newspaper. "There is still plenty of time for John Kerry to turn things around, as Bush's margins are hardly insurmountable in most of the battleground states." What does the poll really mean? It must be taken with a grain of salt. Six weeks before the election, the razor-thin margins could turn on a dime, and Kerry could be slightly ahead of Bush. Still, the poll is probably the most detailed look at how the race is playing out in the 13 battleground states. (Florida could not be analyzed due to the recent hurricanes.) The numbers show that Bush is doing a good job keeping his core base while starting to siphon off some of the voters who went for Gore in 2000.

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