http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94893207
what's disgusting is all the support for bi-partisanship. blergh. <quote> A new survey of rural voters shows that Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has a 10-point lead among this key group. But 10 points in the nation's least populated and most remote places may not be enough to overcome Democrat Barack Obama's expected margins in the nation's cities.
The poll of 742 likely voters in rural counties in 13 tightly contested states has McCain ahead 51 percent to 41 percent.
"In this rural poll, you have McCain only winning by 10 points. That's a recipe for Obama winning this election," says Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster who was part of the bipartisan team that conducted the survey. "If you look at the national polls, Obama now has about an average of a two-point lead. Part of the reason that he has that lead is McCain isn't doing better in rural areas."
Republican political consultant William Greener, who also helped conduct the bipartisan survey, agrees that McCain needs a bigger rural margin to win the election in November.
"We are not where we need to be on Election Day, but we're moving in that direction," Greener contends. He points out that President Bush had similar rural support in a similar rural poll at this time in 2004, but still won rural counties by 20 percentage points on Election Day. <...>