More evidence that President Obama has a big lead in the key state of Pennsylvania.
A new Philadelphia Inquirer Pennsylvania Poll
puts Obama ahead of Republican Mitt Romney by 50%-39%, putting the
incumbent in position for a sixth straight Democratic win in the
Keystone State.
The Inquirer reports that "the Romney camp
clearly has signaled doubts about Pennsylvania by slashing TV ads and
candidate appearances. Obama, too, has cut back, and the state lags
behind Ohio, Florida, and other swing states as targets for the most
intensive campaigning."
Obama led Pennsylvania by nine points in the same poll in August.
A companion Inquirer poll gave Obama a 51%-37% lead in New Jersey.
There
was a time Pennsylvania was considered a major battleground state, not
unlike neighboring Ohio. But the Republicans have not carried it in a
presidential election since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
But the two pollsters who work with the Inquirer note that the 2012 race is not over, certainly not with three presidential debates coming up.
"I'm
not 100 percent prepared to say Pennsylvania is not in play," said Adam
Geller of National Research Inc., a Republican firm.
Jeffrey Plaut of Global Strategy Group, Geller's Democratic partner in the Inquirer poll, said: "Is Pennsylvania done? Put a fork in it? I would say not yet."
USA Today