Barack Gets Weaker

The more voters get to know Barack, the less impressed they are. Or, perhaps that's backwards - maybe it's just that the more they get to know John McCain, the more impressed they are.

...the Arizona senator has made gains on his leadership image. An even greater percentage of voters than in June now see McCain as the candidate who would use the best judgment in a crisis, and an increasing percentage see him as the candidate who can get things done.

Wait until the next Pew Research Poll, when the numbers will show the impact of McCain's leadership on the situation in Georgia.

Pew's latest survey finds 46% of registered voters saying they favor or lean to the putative Democratic candidate, while 43% back his likely Republican rival. In late June, Obama held a comfortable 48%-to-40% margin over McCain, which narrowed in mid-July to 47% to 42%.

From June till August, McCain's 9% advantage in crisis leadership has jumped to 13%, he is perceived as someone willing to take unpopular stands by 11% more than Barack compared to a 3% lead before, and McCain has a 2% advantage being seen as someone who can get things done, a category that Barack lead by 6% in June. Barack continues his slow slide that started in mid-March with the emergence of Jeremiah Wright.

Obama has made little progress in increasing his support among core Democrats since June - currently 83% favor him compared with 87% of Republicans who back McCain. The likely Democratic nominee is still getting relatively modest support from Hillary Clinton's former supporters: 72% of them support Obama, compared with the 88% support level that McCain receives from backers of his formal GOP rivals. Obama's strong points with voters are in being seen as the candidate with new ideas and as someone who connects well with ordinary people.

In other polls, Rasmussen shows Barack leading by 2% for the second day in a row, while Gallup shows a 6% Obama advantage.