The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll 6/17/08

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday is unchanged from yesterday with the candidates as close as they have been in over a week. Barack Obama attracts 45% of the vote while John McCain earns 40%. When “leaners” are included, Obama holds a four-point advantage, 48% to 44% (see recent daily results). Tracking poll results are updated at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time each day. New results for the Alaska Senate race will be released today at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

Eighteen percent (18%) of voters expect a landslide this year while the overwhelming majority expect a close election. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say the Obama-McCain election will be exciting.

A new survey released this morning found that 67% of voters believe that drilling should be allowed off the coasts of California, Florida and other states. Data released yesterday showed that just 29% of voters favor nationalizing the oil industry. Voters tend to think that private companies are more likely than government research programs to find a solution to the nation’s energy problems.

Another survey found that a solid majority of voters believe that Supreme Court Justices have their own political agendas to advance. Just 23% believe the Justices try to act impartially. Americans overwhelmingly believe that free speech is good for the nation (even though 45% believe reporters regularly abuse their free speech rights). However, just 53% are opposed to bans on “hate speech” that would place limits on free speech.

In Virginia, Obama and McCain are tied. The Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator currently shows Obama leading in states with 185 Electoral College votes while McCain has the advantage in states with 174 votes.

Fifty-three percent (53%) of voters see McCain as politically conservative, down four points from a week ago. Sixty-nine percent (69%) see Obama as politically liberal, up two points since last week. See recent demographic notes (Note: Premium Members can review crosstabs for the last full-week of polling).

Obama is viewed favorably by 54% of voters nationwide and unfavorably by 42%. The numbers for McCain are 53% favorable and 44% unfavorable. Opinions are held more strongly about Obama–31% have a Very Favorable opinion of the Democratic hopeful while 27% hold a Very Unfavorable opinion. For McCain, those numbers are 17% Very Favorable and 20% Very Unfavorable (see recent daily favorables).

Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 1,000 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. The margin of sampling error—for the full sample of 3,000 Likely Voters–is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Results are also compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for the full-week results are available for Premium Members.

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