Washington
15 August 2008
Republicans who support Senator John McCain for president are growing increasingly confident that their candidate is gaining momentum in his race for the White House with the presumptive Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reports from Washington.
2008 was supposed to be a Democratic year. Opinion polls have shown growing voter concerns about the U.S. economy, general unhappiness with President Bush and a desire for change.
Despite those Democratic advantages, surveys also show the presidential race between Senators Obama and McCain to be very close.
Pew Research Center pollster Andrew Kohut says young voters were a key factor in Obama's ability to overtake Clinton during the caucuses and primaries.
"Young people throughout the primaries and caucuses were overwhelmingly on Obama's side over Hillary Clinton and the other Democratic candidates," he said. "And in the polls so far in the general election, there is a huge age gap with younger people backing Obama by double-digits and older people, people over 50 and people over 65 for sure, supporting Senator McCain."
But political experts also caution that young voters historically are less likely to show up at the polls on Election Day than older voters.
Senator McCain had the campaign much to himself over the past week since Senator Obama was on vacation in Hawaii. McCain spent a lot of time talking about the crisis in Georgia and took an aggressive line toward Russia. Obama was also critical of Russia's role in the conflict, but was largely out of view for the week.
Both candidates will spend the next several days preparing for two upcoming major events-the announcement of their vice presidential running mates and their national party nominating conventions.