watching the polls

Obama’s Momentum Reflected in New Colorado Poll

A new poll released Monday by Rasmussen Reports has Barack Obama up 6 points over John McCain in Colorado, 51 percent to 45 percent, up from Obama's one-point lead a week ago and McCain's two-point lead two weeks ago.

WHAT THEY DON'T SAY IN THE DEBATES

McCain, Palin, Earmarks, and the DNA of Bears and Harbor Seals

Last Friday, at the onset of the ongoing congressional struggle over our "main street economic rescue package," fifty million of us watched Republican presidential candidate John McCain debate his Democratic rival Barack Obama. And tonight, as Congress is finishing up our economic rescue, even more than fifty million of us will watch Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin face off with Democrat Joe Biden.

Based on what happened in that presidential debate, I strongly suspect she won't say anything about the grizzly bear or harbor seal DNA.

Colorado Polls Swing

Obama Enjoys Western Surge

After his campaign swing through Colorado last week, putting down in Golden, Pueblo, and Grand Junction, Barack Obama enjoys a solid lead in polls in the state.

The latest poll from the independent surveyors at Quinnipiac University shows Obama with 49 percent of likely voters versus 45 percent for McCain. That's a reversal of the findings from the week after the Republican convention, when Quinnipiac found McCain ahead.

mccain vs. obama

The State of the Race in the Rockies

Emboldened Democrats spent the summer eagerly looking West with the expectation of picking up electoral votes in the Rockies while skittish Republicans have fretted about losing what once was a reliably red region. In particular, Barack Obama's campaign has been courting voters in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, and New Mexico -- all states carried by George W. Bush in 2004. Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, have campaigned extensively in the Rockies and -- perhaps most telling -- Democrats decided to stage their convention in Denver in an effort to reach out to the region's voters. But all this was before the Republican National Convention and the arrival of the much-loved and much-loathed Sarah Palin. An unpretentious Idaho native and the governor of the wildest of Western states, many assumed that she would crush the Democrats' Mountain West insurgency. Now that we have some distance from the conventions -- and before the debates commence -- it's a reasonable time to examine where the race stands in the Rockies.

Guest Commentary

American Hunters and Shooters Association Responds to its Critics

Editor's Note: If you visit NewWest.Net regularly, you know I've frequently written about the gun issue, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and the rival organization, the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA). Every time I mention AHSA, commenters claim the group is nothing but a front for anti-gun groups or the ultra-liberal wing of the Democratic Party, or both. To address these concerns, I asked the ASHA to respond in detail to these claims. The Advisory Board of the AHSA prepared the following guest commentary exclusively for NewWest.Net.--Bill Schneider

The recent national Slash and Burn: Why Does the National Rifle Association Leadership Support Congress's Biggest Opponents of Conservation?", a report prepared by the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) to shed light on NRA’s dismal conservation record, has once again fired up the old McCarthy-style, NRA-attack machine.

Rather than question the accuracy of the report, AHSA critics, once again dredge up old character attacks of AHSA leadership and guilt by association innuendo. In the past the AHSA leadership has not responded to the ridiculous NRA attacks, but now may be the best time to publicly respond to the absurd allegations that many NRA apologists on the internet feel compelled repeat.

From The New West Blog

McCain, Obama Talk Sportsmen’s Issues with Field & Stream

Outdoor magazine Field & Stream has posted interviews with presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, providing insights into their positions on conservation, energy exploration and gun rights.

While neither candidate hunts or owns a gun, both have been busy wooing those who do -- especially as the Rocky Mountain West has emerged as a battleground.

A cursory summary after the jump.

WHAT IS THE CONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN'S FOUNDATION HIDING?

Refusal to Release Survey Details Casts Doubt on Pro-McCain Poll

My July 9 column titled, Hunters, Look Beyond the End of Your Gun Barrel, urged hunters to look at the big picture instead of basing their vote exclusively on the gun rights issue, which I consider basically over since politicians won't touch it and the Supreme Court has finally reaffirmed the individual's right to bear arms. The column wasn't about whether Barack Obama is more anti-gun than John McCain, even though most of the comments were. It was about voting for the candidate who would do the most to protect wildlife habitat and hunting access and therefore help save our hunting tradition.

Ironically, on the same day I posted that column, the Los Angeles Times ran an article about a new poll showing hunters preferred McCain over Obama by a 14-point margin.

This didn't jive with my feel for how hunters view the big race, so I decided to check out this survey.

Then, it got interesting.

commentary

Palin Doesn’t Know What She Doesn’t Know

Writing about Palin is like a room that’s so messy you can’t clean it up because once you get started you realize it’s five days of around the clock work so you just continue to wallow in the mess, even though you’re miserable about it.

Also, it takes a lot of energy to sustain this level of outrage, but it's too important to let the energy go.

Analysis of the audacity of McCain’s decision to choose a running mate with the audacity to think she is qualified to be president is easy to find. Feminist analysis is everywhere. Information on her history and background, quotes, facts, scandal, corruption, jokes and videos are posted and reported by the minute. My head has been spinning since the day her choice was announced.

I finally decided to just write about how I feel.

'THE FORGOTTEN AMERICA'

Amid Palin’s Rise, Salazar Talks up Obama’s Rural Record

As Sarah Palin appears to win over rural voters to Republican presidential nominee John McCain, Colorado’s Democratic senator is playing up Barack Obama’s record on rural issues.

“This is a choice between McCain and Obama,” says Sen. Ken Salazar, “and the question of rural voters in my mind is going to be made on the records of who will deliver the most for the part of this great country that has been forgotten.”

Salazar spoke in a conference call with reporters on Sunday, the day before Obama was scheduled to appear in two small cities in rural Colorado. Obama is scheduled to speak on Monday in Grand Junction, on Colorado’s Western Slope, and in Pueblo, in southeastern Colorado.