Yet another poll, this time the LA Times/Bloomberg poll, puts this race in a statistical tie. Obama now only “leads” 45 – 43% (with 10% undecided). The two percent difference is well within the margin of 3%. The “negative ads” (also known in the real world as contrast ads) have been working.

McCain drew stronger support from his party than Obama from his. McCain has 90% of the Republican vote to 78% of the Democrat vote for Obama.

The race tightens up even more when they include the other candidates by name. Obama garners 42%, McCain 41%, Nader 4%, Barr 1% and McKinney doesn’t even register (11% undecided here).

Obama wins the enthusiasm award. No surprises there. 78% of his voters are enthusiastically voting for him compared to 61% for McCain.

McCain overwhelmingly wins the experience category. He dominated all categories that they measured including Dem, Lib and Black. 80% believe that McCain has the experience to lead to Obama’s 44%. Obama also had 48% who answered that he doesn’t have the experience to lead (including 24% of those who identified themselves as liberal).

McCain wins the foreign relations category (presumably his response to Russia/Georgia has helped this). He garners a 77% positive rating to Obama’s 63%.

God help us, but Obama is winning on the economy (45 – 28%). This is really interesting. Obama only manages a lead that is within the margin of error on the overall poll, but he wins the number one issue by a healthy margin. Go figure.

One disturbing thing that I saw way too much of at the end of the poll was questions about race. When are we going to move beyond race as a dividing line?

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