Gore Holding On to Narrow Lead in Polls

Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore is clinging to a narrow nationwide lead over Republican rival George W. Bush, while the vice president’s positions on key issues remain more popular than the candidate himself, according to a Newsweek poll released Saturday.

Gore led the Texas governor, 46% to 42%, in the Newsweek poll of 753 registered voters who were questioned Thursday and Friday by Princeton Survey Research Associates. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader drew the support of 2% of respondents, Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan won the backing of 1%, and 9% were undecided or favored some other minor candidate.

The poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points, the exact margin between Gore and Bush.

A week ago, a Newsweek poll found Gore, fresh off the Democratic convention, leading Bush, 48% to 42%, with 3% for Nader, 1% for Buchanan, and 6% undecided or backing someone else.

With no names attached to their respective proposals, the Newsweek poll found that respondents agreed with Gore’s ideas on tax cuts (55% to 38%) and on Social Security and retirement savings (58% to 33%).

If taxes are to be cut, 55% of those questioned backed Gore’s proposal for targeted cuts to help middle- and lower-income families pay for such things as college tuition and long-term health care, while 39% favored Bush’s plan for an across-the-board tax cut.

Meanwhile, another poll released Saturday showed that Gore has surged to within 2 percentage points of Bush in the key battleground state of Ohio.

The Survey/USA poll of 500 likely Ohio voters, published in the Dayton Daily News, found Bush leading Gore, 47% to 45%. With the poll’s margin of error at 4.5 percentage points, the race in Ohio can be considered a statistical dead heat.