Two More Polls Find President Bush Maintains Lead

Even though national polls don't really matter in the electoral college contest, and the debate on Thursday could change everything, I'm still going to post about these new polls.

USA Today reports that the latest the USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll finds President Bush leads Kerry by 8 points among likely voters:

Likely Voters
Bush 52
Kerry 44
Nader 3
Registered Voters
Bush 53
Kerry 42
Nader 3

The poll was conducted September 24-26, 2004 and has a margin of error is ±3 percent. President Bush's 8% lead is less than the 14% lead found by the September 13-15, 2004 polling.

The poll doesn't have any other good news for Kerry. The survey's findings show Kerry's standing on some fundamental measures has eroded:

Kerry no longer has an advantage when it comes to handling the economy.

For the first time, the number of voters who say Kerry could handle the responsibilities of commander in chief fell below 50%.

Likely voters by 54%-44% say Bush's policies would move the country in the right direction. By 49%-44%, they say Kerry's policies would move the country in the wrong direction.

More of the poll results are available here.

The Washington Post reports that a new Washington Post-ABC News Poll finds that President Bush maintains a solid 6% lead over Kerry:

Likely Voters
Bush 51
Kerry 45
Nader 1

Registered Voters
Bush 51
Kerry 44
Nader 2

The poll was conducted September 23-26, 2004 and has a margin of error of ±3 percent for registered voters. The poll results released on September 8, found a 9% lead for President Bush.

More of the poll results are available here.