Gore up slightly in tracking poll

By Jon Dougherty

After etching out nearly a seven-point lead over Democratic presidential challenger Al Gore, GOP nominee George W. Bush has only a
slight statistical lead over the vice president in this morning’s national presidential tracking poll,

Portrait of America
said.

Bush leads Gore 44.3 percent to 40.4 percent, with 6 percent overall support going to four other national candidates.

The Green Party’s Ralph Nader has 2.7 percent; Reform’s Patrick J. Buchanan has fallen to just 0.8; Libertarian Harry Browne also has 0.8 percent; and the Constitution Party’s Howard Phillips has just 0.3 percent.

“The biggest change in the dynamics of the race since the party conventions is that Al Gore is perceived much more positively than he was before the convention,” POA analysts said.

“Al Gore also succeeded in altering the public perception of George W. Bush a bit,” analysts said, noting that Bush “is not seen as ‘slightly more conservative’ than he was before the conventions.”

Rasmussen Research conducted the telephone surveys of 2,250 likely voters Aug. 23, 24 and 26. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2 percentage points, with a 95 percent level of confidence.


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Jon Dougherty

Jon E. Dougherty is a Missouri-based political science major, author, writer and columnist. Follow him on Twitter. Read more of Jon Dougherty's articles here.