New Poll: Obama, McCain Neck in Neck For Rural Vote:

After trailing by as many as 10 points in a recent swing state rural area poll, Barack Obama has narrowed this gap so that he is now neck and neck with Senator McCain. This is a major development as the votes of rural area people in these swing states is seen as a major vote in being able to win the White House. In the poll, Obama was supported by 46 percent of voters and McCain was supported by 45 percent of voters. The poll, commissioned by The Center for Rural Strategies in Whitesburg, Kentucky, seems to attribute this sudden change to America's declining economic situation. A month ago, this same poll showed that McCain led Obama by a 51 to 41 percent margin. However, when polled this time, voters seemed to think that Obama would do a better job of handling the economy, taxes, and what they called "The financial crisis in our country."
Again this is newsworthy as nearly 20 percent of Americans live in areas that are considered rural. In 2004, George W. Bush won these rural areas by a rather large margin, 19 percent. A possible reason for McCain's drop in the polls could be the rural voters recent cooling of their support for McCain's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. In September, 48 percent of those polled viewed her favorably, while only 33 percent viewed her unfavorably. In this most recent poll however, 40 percent view her as favorably, while 42 percent view her unfavorably. However, McCain still held a 10 point advantage, 53-43 percent on the issue of who would handle the war in Iraq better.
This poll to me seems to help show the major role that the current state of our economy will play in this election. It seems that most people think that Senator Obama would do a better job of handling the struggling economy and the financial crisis, so this bodes well for him. However, there are other key categories that people feel McCain would do a better job with. All of this added up makes for a very interesting last couple of weeks before election day.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081023/pl_nm/us_usa_politics_rural