John McCain Watch: The Michigan Battleground

Obama has the support of 43 percent of likely Michigan voters, to 41 percent for McCain, according to the survey conducted for The News and WXYZ by Lansing’s EPIC-MRA. That’s well within the survey’s 4 percentage point error margin. A potentially decisive 12 percent say they’re still undecided, and 5 percent chose third-party candidates Bob Barr or Ralph Nader.

Key graphs:

• Obama, buoyed by near-universal support from African-Americans, is well ahead in Detroit. He holds a big lead with young voters, and a smaller edge among those who name the economy as their primary concern, and gets better marks as the candidate most likely to bring change.
• McCain leads among white voters, but not by a large enough margin to counter Obama’s lead with African-Americans. He is ahead across the state outside of Metro Detroit, especially in northern and western Michigan. McCain gets higher marks as a candidate voters trust, and to handle terrorism and homeland security.

Could this be the primary reason why rumors have been swirling around Mitt Romney, who beat John McCain in the Michigan GOP primary election and a native son (Romney was raised in the state where his father was Governor) to be named as McCain’s Vice President?

In a close race, it might provide the edge to win.

By the way, tell one of the morons in the video above that she could not vote for Bush again anyway.