Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain by 11 percentage points in the last USA TODAY/Gallup national poll of likely voters before Election Day. With less than two days to go before polls open, the contenders' support is estimated to be: Obama, 55 %; McCain, 44 %.
Just as ominous for the Republican candidate, Obama holds a 53% to 34% lead among the sizable minority of voters (15%) who say they have already voted. Among those who plan to vote early but have not yet voted (16% of voters), 56% support Obama, while 37% support McCain.( PEW survey)
One more historic tidbit from the survey: Obama's favorable rating is 62% ~ the highest that any presidential candidate has registered in Gallup's final pre-election polls going back to 1992.
But what this poll does not reflect is the youth vote which is currently favoring Obama 58% to 28% ( PEW ). Add another 4% of the youth vote to the national polls and we are looking at a landslide.
No where was this more obvious than in the Iowa caucuses earlier this year ~ According to surveys of voters entering the caucuses, young voters preferred Obama over the next-closest competitor by more than 4 to1. This suggests that the under-25 set ~ typically among the most elusive voters in all of politics ~ gave the Illinois Senator a net gain of some 17,000 votes; Obama finished roughly 20,000 votes ahead of former Senator John Edwards and Sen. Hillary Clinton.
