Latest Presidential Polls in Ohio Show a Very Tight Race

The latest presidential polls in the state of Ohio show that John McCain and Barack Obama are engaged in a very tight battle that is likely to go right down to the wire in the Buckeye state. The RealClearPolitics average of the nine most recent presidential polls in the state of Ohio show Barack Obama with a lead of 3.2% over John McCain.

Only one of the last nine polls shows McCain leading Obama, but none of the polls show Obama leading by more than six points. Considering the fact that Obama is ahead by about 7 or 8 points nationally in most of the polls right now, the tight margin in Ohio shows that Obama still has some closing to do in this state. The most recently released poll from the state of Ohio was done by Rasmussen Reports and was conducted on October 10th. The poll shows Obama leading 49%-47%.

Importantly, this is the first Rasmussen poll to show Obama leading in Ohio since they began tracking the state back in February. The thing that seems to have put him into the lead right now is the fact that independents in Ohio now support him over McCain by a margin of 49%-42%. In all of the previous polls from the state McCain had been doing pretty well among the independent voters. Obama is a more polarizing figure, with 37% having a very favorable opinion of him and 30% a very unfavorable opinion. Those numbers are significantly higher than McCain's of 29% having a very favorable opinion and 21% a very unfavorable opinion.The bottom line from the Presidential polls in Ohio is that Barack Obama leads in Ohio, but his lead is slightly smaller here than his lead is nationally.

It is absolutely clear based on the campaign and their schedules that both the Obama campaign and the McCain campaign understand the importance of Ohio. The fact that Barack Obama has spent multiple days in Ohio just in the last week, and that Sarah Palin has basically been camped out in Ohio of late tells me that both campaigns know that the race here is very close. Both campaigns are making a strong push to have volunteers call voters or help get out the vote on election day as the days dwindle down to the final tallying of the vote.