Taking A Look At The Numbers - June 19 to June 25

With the poll numbers in and Senator McCain trailing, what will it take to bridge the gap?

Any which way the numbers pretty much dictate that there is going to have to be strong action taken from the McCain campaign to bridge the gap if the Arizona Senator hopes to stage another startling comeback in order to win.

By Citizen Correspondent Wyatt McIntyre

Date Posted: 06/25/08

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With the race heating up, his poll numbers down, his fundraising lagging behind, it was all over for him even before it had begun. How could it not be? A huge lead was squandered, he went from being the heir apparent to the party nomination to what had seemed like a long shot at best, his rivals gaining in popularity while his support dwindled. Most had written him off, or were ready to. After all, this time around was just going to prove that he was nothing more than a two time loser without enough momentum to get him through the first of the fifty fights that were ahead. Of the choices that he had few seemed particularly appealing but something had to be done and it had to be done quick if he wanted to revive his chances.

He started with a campaign shakeup. Shuffling out some of the old faces and names to bring in new thinking and new ideas, shifting the message he was more comfortable with and sticking to point the campaign had a completely different feel to.

A few months later Arizona Senator John McCain won the Republican nomination, his toughest competitors dropping off individually after they lost the states or the contests they had pinned their chances on.

It would force the Democrat's, in turn to change their messaging. Whereas once former Vermont Governor and Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean talked about how his party would have a nominee early, focusing their campaign and honing their message while the Republicans would be locked in a bloodied battle that would not end pleasant and would leave the party in a state of disarray, time proved him wrong and he was forced to rethink his dialog, spinning it to a message better suited to the fight the Democrats were then facing.

Today though, once again it's not looking good for Senator McCain. Where his poll numbers were once strong they have now slipped. The Los Angeles Times/Bloomburg June edition of their National Political Issues Survey is showing a twelve point lead for principle rival, Democratic Presumptive Nominee Barack Obama, giving him 49 per cent to Senator McCain's 37, while Newsweek gave a 15 point lead to the Illinois Senator during their June 19th survey, though their survey represented the smallest sampling of any of the current presidential polls out there with just under 900 people survey. Perhaps the two of the grimmest of the polls released thus far for Senator McCain, it's not the only one to paint a bad picture for him.