Dole Reaps Benefit From A Unified Convention

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Aug. 19) -- Republican Robert Dole picked up an 11-point bounce from last week's upbeat Republican convention and has moved to within seven points of President Bill Clinton, according to a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll.

The survey, released this afternoon, found that if the election were today, 48 percent of voters would support the Clinton-Gore ticket; 41 percent the Dole-Jack Kemp ticket; and seven percent Texas billionaire Ross Perot. Four percent favored other candidates or were undecided.

The new poll's numbers are based on interviews with 1,006 registered voters from Friday through Sunday. The margin of sampling error was +/- 3 percentage points.

In the last CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey before the GOP's Aug. 12-15 convention, 30 percent of voters backed Dole in a three-way race. Now Dole's figure stands at 41 percent.

There is some indication, however, the selection of Kemp, not the convention, was responsible for the biggest part of Dole's 11-point improvement.

Earlier polls indicated that Dole gained eight points even before the convention started, moving from a 30 percent share of the vote to 38 percent on the Sunday before the convention. That would mean that the convention itself was only responsible for another three points of Dole's bounce.

The new poll appears to confirm this. Forty-five percent of registered voters said that the convention itself made them more likely to vote for Dole, while 60 percent said that the selection of Kemp made them more likely to vote for Dole.

Nonetheless, the convention has produced a dramatic turnaround in public attitudes toward Dole. A full 59 percent say he cares about the needs of people like themselves, a 13-point gain since before the convention. And 57 percent say he shares their values, a 15-point increase.

Fifty-one percent say he can bring about the changes this country needs and 67 percent say he can get things done -- both questions getting 13-point increases since before the convention. On three of those questions, Dole now leads Clinton, and he is tied on the fourth -- caring about people's needs, which has always been Clinton's strong point.

Other highlights of the survey:

Fifty-one percent of people favor Dole's tax-cutting economic plan, compared to only 36 percent before the convention.
Fifty-two percent of people rated Dole's acceptance speech as excellent or good, compared to a total of 28 percent who said it was just okay, poor or terrible.
Elizabeth Dole, the candidate's wife, actually would do better than her husband against Clinton. In that hypothetical presidential matchup, 51 percent favor Clinton, while 46 percent would support Mrs. Dole.

The CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll

Dole Reaps Benefit From A Unified Convention

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