10 Days to Go

With 10 days to go until election, Oregon strongly favors Obama. The race was never really close here, but in the past month the gap has widened even further.

The DailyKos.com/Research 2000 poll reports Obama with a 15 point lead over McCain, 53% to 38%. The Rasmussen poll also shows Obama with a strong lead, with 54%, compared to McCain at 41%. The last time any poll from pollster.com reported a Republican lead was back in February.

Obama also has more endorsements in Oregon than McCain does. The Oregonian endorses Barack Obama primarily because of his economic plan and presumed ability to help fix the economy. Other newspapers endorsing Obama include The Daily Astorian, Mail Tribune, Register-Guard, Stateman-Journal, and Yamhill Valley News. The only newspaper endorsement for McCain is from the Bend Bulletin.

The Senate race between Democrat Jeff Merkley and Republican Gordon Smith also has an influence on the election. With so much momentum behind Obama now, new ads are focusing on a Democratic House and Senate to back the policies of Obama. One of the key issues of these ads is the environment and promoting clean energy.

In addition, Oregon has voted Democrat in the past four election cycles. There would need to be a drastic change in issues or the Republican stance on issues, and unfortunately for McCain, no such change has occurred.

For these reasons I believe Oregon will vote for Obama.