McCain Gets Boost in Support Out of Convention, Surveys Show

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain held a lead over Democrat Barack Obama in two of five national poll surveys taken after the four-day Republican convention and the candidates were tied in the other three.

McCain, a senator from Arizona, has an average lead of 2 percentage points in the polls taken since the Republican National Convention concluded Sept. 4 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Candidates historically get a boost in poll ratings following their party conventions, and McCain erased an average lead of just under 7 points that Illinois Senator Obama had after the Democrat's event in Denver during the last week of August.

McCain and his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, campaigned together today in Missouri. Obama is holding events in Michigan and Ohio, while his vice presidential nominee, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, was in Wisconsin. All four are swing states where both campaigns are competing intensely.

``This state we must win and we will win,'' McCain said in Lee's Summit, a suburb of Kansas City.

In a USA Today/Gallup survey, McCain led Obama 50-46 among registered voters. Among those the survey deemed likely to vote in the November election, McCain's lead was 10 percentage points, 54-44, a 13-point swing since before the Republican convention. The poll was conducted Sept. 5-7.

Tracking Poll

In a separate Gallup Inc. daily tracking poll of registered voters taken Sept. 5-7, McCain was ahead by 5 percentage points, 49-44. Obama had led in that survey by as much as 8 points after the Democratic convention.

Three polls taken Sept. 5-7, by CNN, National Journal's Hotline/Diageo and Rasmussen Reports, put the race at a tie. That still marks a gain for McCain, who trailed Obama in surveys by both organizations that found Obama ahead in the aftermath of the Democratic nominating convention.

The CNN poll showed both candidates with 48 percent support and the Hotline survey put them both at 44 percent. The Rasmussen daily tracking poll of likely voters puts McCain's support at 47 percent and Obama's at 46, a statistically insignificant difference, according to Rasmussen.

The Rasmussen and Gallup tracking polls survey 1,000 people each day and the results are reported as an average of each night's results. Both organizations give a margin or error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

The error margin for the CNN and USA Today/Gallup was 3 percentage points, and 3.2 percentage points for the Hotline/Diageo poll.