With a second Bush-Kerry debate scheduled for Friday and a vice-presidential matchup on Tuesday, three polls released Monday offered a mixed but tightening picture of the 2004 presidential race.
A Pew Research Center survey of 1,002 registered voters, conducted 1-3 October, placed Bush ahead 48 to 41 percent, though the margin tightened to five points among likely voters (49 to 44, margin of error 3.5 percent). Kerry picked up one point compared to a late-September Pew survey; Bush held steady.
A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll of likely voters, also taken 1-3 October, found the two candidates deadlocked at 49 percent each (four-percent margin of error), a sharp reversal from the same survey a week earlier, when Bush led 52 to 44, and from just before the first debate, when he held an eight-point advantage.
A Newsweek poll, the first released after Thursday's debate, gave Kerry a three-point edge over Bush among registered voters, reversing a six-point Bush advantage from three weeks prior.
On Iraq, 41 percent of likely voters in the USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll said Kerry had a clear plan for the country, up from 30 percent before the debate. Bush retained an edge on the commander-in-chief question, though his lead on that measure fell from 16 points to five.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.