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ON THE TRAIL

October 8, 2008

Barack Obama is outspending John McCain at nearly a three-to-one clip on television time in the final weeks of the presidential election, according to ad buy information obtained by washingtonpost.com's "The Fix" column. That edge is almost certainly contributing to the momentum for the Illinois senator in key battleground states. From Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, Obama spent more than $20 million on television ads in 17 states including more than $3 million in Pennsylvania and more than $2 million each in Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania. McCain in that same time frame spent just $7.2 million in 14 states. Even when the Republican National Committee's independent spending in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin is factored in (a total of $5.3 million), Obama still outspent the combined GOP forces by roughly $8 million in the last week alone.

Nationally, a new NBC/WSJ poll has Obama/Biden up 49-43 against McCain/Palin nationally. By a 50-29 margin, voters believe Obama and Biden have beaten McCain and Palin in the first two debates. And voters who think the economy is the most important issue rank Obama as best equipped to handle it 54-39. For McCain: While Obama has a solid lead nationally, the race is still even in key battleground states, the poll, with a margin of error of plus/minus 3.8 percentage points, shows.