Survey USA Shows Single Digit NC Race

Survey USA released its new North Carolina poll today, showing a close single digit race.

Barack Obama: 49%
Hillary Clinton: 44%

Obama's lead is down from the last poll, which showed him winning the state by 9 points.

Some interesting demographics.

Clinton wins whites by 31 points. Among unaffiliated voters, Clinton now leads by 4 points. This suggest the recent Wright controversy may have had some effect. We will have to wait until next week to see if Obama's response gained him any points.

Note of caution, in Survey USA's PA polls, SUSA over-polled Clinton all the way up to their last poll where they under-polled Clinton. Is it possible the same is happening with Obama, except in reverse?

If the race in North Carolina ends in the single digits, and Clinton walks away with an Indiana win, this could make the race for the Democratic nomination wide open. Obama is widely expected to win North Carolina by huge margins, any sign of weakness in the Obama candidacy can not only sway voters, but swing superdelegates. Having said all that, I believe Obama will win by double digits.

Clinton, Obama Respond to McCain Health Care

Here are the responses from the Democratic candidates regarding McCain's Healthcare plan.

From Clinton:

John McCain is proposing a radical plan that would mean millions of Americans would lose their job-based coverage: The McCain plan eliminates the policies that hold the employer-based health insurance system together, so while people might have a ‘choice’ of getting such coverage , employers would have no incentive to provide it. This means 158 million Americans with job-based coverage today could be at risk of losing the insurance they have come to depend upon.

While Senator McCain touts the choices his plan offers, people who are older or sicker would actually have no choice under his new proposals. Older Americans or those with pre-existing conditions would be allowed to get only one type of coverage in a high risk GAP pool. That kind of arrangement does more to help insurers than individuals. In addition, high-risk pools fall far short of helping people in need. Virtually all high-risk pools today have waiting lists, high premiums, and scaled-back benefits. The millions of vulnerable Americans who lose employer-based coverage could have to wait months, maybe years, to access the GAP high-risk pools, if they are like the pools that exist today.

To top it off, Senator McCain has offered no straight talk on how he would pay for these initiatives.

From Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan:

At a time when 47 million Americans don't have health care, and millions more are being driven to financial ruin trying to pay their medical bills, John McCain is recycling the same failed policies that didn't work when George Bush first proposed them and won't work now. Instead of taking on the big health insurance companies and requiring them to cover Americans with preexisting conditions, Senator McCain wants to make it easier for them to reject your coverage, drop it, or jack up the price you pay. But the only choice he's offering the American people is a tax break that won't guarantee coverage and doesn’t ensure that health care is affordable for the working families who need it most. Barack Obama has a universal health care plan that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family's premiums by up to $2500 a year.

McCain Targets Healthcare

One of the biggest challenges for McCain is domestic issues. No one doubts McCain's national security credentials, but McCain's performance on the stump has been subpar when it comes to the economy and domestic issues. Now, McCain is trying to address the issue with this new spot on Health Care.