Campaign Chatter

Wow - what a classic Tennis match - not being much of a tennis follower, I was a little miffed when "Meet the Press" was preempted for tennis at Wimbledon. Now, I can see why - Roger Federer had won five straight titles until Rafael Nadal beat him yesterday. It took almost five hours to complete the five sets.

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New Zogby Poll has Obama up by 6 - In an online survey from June 11-30, 44% supported Obama to 38% for McCain. Libertarian candidate Bob Barr received 6% which, if this holds, could hurt McCain. Another important statistic is the Independent vote - this is going to Obama 39-31. It is still way early to put much stock in polls, but a candidate always likes to be ahead, no matter when the poll is conducted. Read Poll results here.

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Obama leading McCain by over 100 in the all important electoral vote - Today, the Electoral Vote Predictor has Obama at 320 and McCain at 218. 270 are needed to win. They have the Senate at 55 - Dems and 45 - GOP and the House at 239 - Dems and 196 - GOP. This will be extremely difficult to maintain through election day in November, but most pundits are predicting a 3 - 7 seat gain in the Senate for Democrats. Read information here.

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Today, Obama is in Charlotte, North Carolina - He will again discuss the economy - this time at a middle school. Later, he will travel to Atlanta, Georgia. McCain will begin his economic tour today in Denver, Colorado, the site of the Democratic national convention. As I have been mentioning in recent posts, a failing economy is the number one issue facing voters today. The candidate that connects with the voters on this issue will certainly have the advantage in November. So far, McCain is sounding like "stay the course", which is hardly appealing and Obama is offering changes in the tax structure to benefit the working middle class. The New York Times has a good read today about the challenges the campaigns have in regard to solutions for an ailing economy. Read it here.

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McCain adds Giuliani campaign manager to staff - Steve Schmidt, the newly appointed campaign manager, hires Mike DeHaime to be the political director of the McCain campaign. After the failed presidential run of former mayor Rudy Giuliani, he worked for the Republican National Committee. Read more here.

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11:30 AM ET Update - Obama will give nomination acceptance speech at Denver Bronco's Mile High stadium - as we mentioned earlier, the location has been changed for his speech on August 28 - the stadium seats 75,000. Read more here.