Kerry beat Bush 49-43 in latest Miami Herald/St. Pete Times Poll!

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/8125717.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

Increasingly critical of President Bush on his handling of the economy and the war in Iraq, more Florida voters now say they plan to support Democrat John Kerry than to help reelect the president, according to a new poll.

The Herald/St. Petersburg Times survey reveals striking vulnerabilities for Bush among key independent voters in the state that narrowly put him into the White House four years ago.

More Florida voters disapprove of his job performance than approve, another sign of the president's lagging popularity since the 2001 terrorist attacks transformed Bush from a polarizing figure into a popular wartime president.

A majority of voters believe that the United States is ''moving in the wrong direction'' under Bush -- a marked reversal from two years ago, when 7 in 10 voters, including half of Democrats, approved of Bush's job performance.

<>While Kerry secured the nomination only days ago, he holds a 49 to 43 percent lead over a president who just four months ago led every potential Democratic challenger by as many as 18 percentage points.
___________________

Kerry leads Bush with Independents by a margin of 57% to little over 33% for Bush! Additionally, Bush's approval of the handling of the war in Iraq had gone down to 46%! There is a gender gap with 57% of women voting for Kerry while Bush gets 52% of the men.

[Clark4Prez]

1. Wooo-hoooooo

Florida is coming around baby! Time to change the color of this state and make up for 2000.

Bus tickets for Bush! :bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:

[Leilani]

3. That is terrific news!!!

Let's hope it's the same in the other battleground states!!!

[rockymountaindem]

2. Jeb may not be able to steal the vote after all.

Cross your fingers... maybe we can pull this election off with shear numbers. If we get 55% of the national vote the electoral college will automatically follow. At least things are looking up!

[rfranklin]

4. We saw polls like this in Georgia 2000....

And still the right wing reactionaries triumphed. We will need to see a 20 percent advantage to beat them.

[number6]

5. needed, un-rigged voting

We will need un-rigged voting machines ...

[Zynx]

6. We only saw those Georgia polls after the convetion when we were riding

high. Polls before the election itself showed a margin similar to the one we were beaten by.

[mobuto]

8. Georgia is interesting

Georgia is heavily Democratic - and perfectly winnable. The problems in 2002 I think were just the result of the most perfect GOTV campaign the Republicans have ever run - combined with technical Democratic incompetence. In an ordinary election year, Cleland and Barnes would both have won. I think Gore could have won GA as well - if he'd spent any effort to try to win it. There are a lot of winnable states in the South - GA, VA, TN, KY, LA, AK, FL, NC. They just take a Democrat with imagination and guts.

[mobuto]

7. I don't believe it

1. This poll is of registered voters, not likely voters.
2. Democratic turnout has been significantly lower, in Fl, than Republican turnout.

Can Kerry win Florida? Absolutely. But its going to be really tough.

[Nicholas_J]

9. Yup

But Florida does have a slightly higher percentage of Democrats than Republicans, and a large, very large number of Florida Republicans are rather disappointed with Bush. A very large number of them are familt members of reservists who have been sent to Iraq for a lot longer than planned, they are unhappy (I live in one of the prime naval base areas). And while Florida is no longer as much the land of the retiree that it used to be, thereare a great many retirees still here who are angry at a lot of things, like the prescription drug plan, and the rather poor cost of livings to Social Security under Bush, and a lot of other factors. A lot of old Repukes I used to argue with about politics are now planning to vote Kerry come November, in fact most of them. I knew it was over for Bush when I saw a rather stereotypical Bubba scraping the Bush/Cheney 2000 sticker off of their car a few months ago while cursing under their breath...They now support Kerry. Things are changing here, big time.