Open Thread

February 5th, 2008 10:10 AM

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Obama and Romney take surprising leads in late California polls:

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama surged to a big lead over Hillary Clinton in California hours before "Super Tuesday" voting began in 24 states, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Tuesday.

In the Republican race, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney held a 7-point advantage on Arizona Sen. John McCain in California, while McCain added to commanding double-digit leads in New York and New Jersey.

Here are some other numbers:

In California, which alone provides more than one-fifth of the Democratic delegates needed for the nomination, Obama led Clinton by 49 percent to 36 percent, the poll found. The margin of error was 3.3 percentage points.

Clinton pulled into a 5-point lead in New Jersey, 46 percent to 41 percent, after being tied on Monday. Obama held a 45 percent to 42 percent edge on Clinton in Missouri. Both polls had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

Obama had a 20-point edge in Georgia, aided by a more than 3-to-1 lead among black voters.

[...]

McCain held a 26-point edge on Romney in New York and a 29-point advantage in New Jersey as he pushed for a convincing triumph that could knock Romney out of the race to be the Republican candidate in November's presidential election.

McCain held a narrow 34 percent to 27 percent lead over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in Missouri, with Romney running third at 25 percent. The margin of error was 3.4 percentage points.

Thoughts?