Obama popular, but polls show voters not sold

By Patrick Healy - New York Times News Service

As Sen. Barack Obama prepares to accept the Democratic presidential nomination next week, party leaders in battleground states say the fight ahead against Sen. John McCain looks tougher than they imagined, with Obama vulnerable on multiple fronts despite weeks of cross-country and overseas campaigning.

These Democrats — 15 governors, members of Congress and state party leaders — say Obama has yet to convert his popularity among many Americans into solutions to crucial electoral challenges: showing ownership of an issue, like economic stewardship or national security; winning over supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; and minimizing his race and experience level as concerns for voters.

Presidential candidates make bank at fund-raising
CHICAGO — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised more than $51 million in July and the Democratic National Committee reported $27.7 million in donations last month, putting Obama in a strong position for the fall campaign.
Obama began August with $65.8 million on hand and the DNC had $28.5 million available, according to statements released Saturday. His July total was slightly less than the $52 million he raised in June but still eye-popping because he was off the fund-raising circuit at home during his trip to the Middle East and Europe.
Obama's Internet-powered fund-raising efforts have shattered all previous records for a presidential campaign, bringing in a total of $390 million so far. The Illinois senator has announced he will forgo public financing for the general election, giving up $84 million in taxpayer dollars for the final two months of the campaign and committing himself to a steady pace of fund-raising.
By contrast, Republican candidate John McCain has raised just $140 million and has agreed to accept public financing for the general election and the spending restraints that come with it. Unlike Obama, McCain will not feel the intense pressure to raise money in the fall.
On Friday, McCain's campaign said the presumed GOP nominee had raised $27 million in July, his biggest monthly haul since clinching the party's nomination.
Associated Press

Obama has run for the last 18 months as the candidate of hope. Yet party leaders — while enthusiastic about Obama and his state-by-state campaign operations — say he must do more to convince the many undecided Democrats and independents that he would address their financial anxieties rather than run, by and large, as an agent of change — given that change, they note, is not an issue.

Or, in the blunt words of Gov. Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn.: ”Instead of giving big speeches at big stadiums, he needs to give straight-up, 10-word answers to people at Wal-Mart about how he would improve their lives.“

A New York Times/CBS News poll last month found the race between Obama and McCain to be a statistical dead heat.

Some Republicans say the difficulty Obama faces getting traction in public opinion polls reflects the country's reservations about this relative newcomer to national politics.

”I think Senator Obama is a motivational speaker, but at the end of the day I don't think that will translate into votes and certainly not the image of strength that Ronald Reagan had,“ said Jim Greer, the chairman of the Florida Republican Party.

In response, several Democrats said that choosing a seasoned party leader as his running mate would help Obama in the fall if he is unable to fully allay voters' uncertainty that a one-term senator is ready for the presidency.

”The one area he still needs credibility in is experience, and picking an Evan Bayh or a Joe Biden as vice president would help a lot with that,“ said John B. Breaux, a former Democratic senator from Louisiana. ”It wouldn't be bad if he came out early and said who his secretary of Defense and secretary of State would be — that would address and stabilize the concerns about his experience.“

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