One can imagine how excited the Chronicle editors were to pounce on this Reuters story of a Newsweek poll:
Democratic challenger John Kerry has pulled ahead of President Bush in a poll published by Newsweek magazine showing that Thursday’s television debate erased the lead Bush had enjoyed for the past month.
In a two-way contest, the Kerry/Edwards ticket in the Nov. 2 presidential election led by 49 percent against 46 percent for Bush/Cheney, according to 1,013 registered voters polled by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.
According to the poll, 61 percent of Americans who watched the presidential debate Sept. 30 said Kerry won, 19 percent said Bush won and 16 percent said they tied. The number of viewers surveyed was 770.
Bush’s job-approval rating dropped two points from the Sept. 9-10 Newsweek poll to 46 percent — a 6-point drop since the Republican National Convention a month ago. Fifty-seven percent of all poll respondents — a total of 1,144 adults — said they were dissatisfied with the way things were going in the United States now.
Unfortunately, the Chronicle didn’t provide much context for what looks like a sizable voter shift.
Here are some bloggers to put it into perspective.
