Tracking Today

TPM Track Composite: Obama Ahead By More Than Eight Points
By Eric Kleefeld - October 11, 2008, 1:06PM

Here's our daily composite of the five major national tracking polls. This is the first day on which we have data collected entirely after the second presidential debate, and it shows, and it shows that Barack Obama has expanded his already-considerable lead since that debate:

• Gallup: Obama 51%, McCain 42%, with a ±2% margin of error, compared to a 51%-41% Obama lead yesterday.

• Rasmussen: Obama 52%, McCain 45%, with a ±2% margin of error, compared to a 50%-45% Obama lead from yesterday.

• Hotline/Diageo: Obama 50%, McCain 40%, with a ±3.4% margin of error, compared to a 48%-41% Obama lead yesterday.

• Research 2000: Obama 52%, McCain 40%, with a ±3% margin of error, unchanged from yesterday.

• Zogby: Obama 48%, McCain 44%, with a ±2.9% margin of error, compared to a 48%-43% Obama lead yesterday.

Adding these polls together and weighting them by the square roots of their sample sizes, Obama is ahead 50.8%-42.5%, a lead of more than eight points, compared to a 50.0%-42.2% Obama lead yesterday.

In the data collected before the debate, the score was Obama 49.7%, McCain 43.2%.