Both contestants initially avoided attacking each other during political rallies across various parts of America. But, that changed recently when Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, accussed Obama of "paling around with terrorists" in reference to his association with Bill Ayers. Ayers is the founder of Weather Underground, a domestic terror group, in the 1960s. He has long renounced violence and is now a professor and foremost education reformer in Illinois. Obama explained that he met Ayers while he was serving on an education board in Chicago and their association did not predate or extend beyond contact at the board. The McCain campaign team did not think so and followed this accusation with an advert depicting Obama as being untruthful about his real association with Ayers.

The Obama campaign team also responded with an advert dwelling on McCain’s involvement in the "Keating Five" scandal. Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Charles Keating Jr. and his associates at Lincoln Savings and Loan Association along with trips on Keating’s jets. These were seen as inducements to make McCain and four other legislators prevent Lincoln, Keating’s company, from being declared bankrupt. McCain repaid the funds in 1989.

As the election gets closer, the opinion polls have revealed that voters are indifferent to these accusations. Instead, their reactions show that if the elections were held during the period the attacks were ongoing, Obama would emerge the winner. Overall, a poll found that if the election were held last week, 53 percent of those determined to be probable voters would have voted for Obama and 39 percent would have voted for McCain.

After several weeks in which the McCain campaign sought to tie Obama to Ayers, 64 percent of voters said that they were aware of the topic. But a majority said they were not bothered by Obama’s background or past associations. Several people said in follow-up interviews that they felt that McCain’s attacks on Obama were too rooted in the past, or too unconnected to the nation’s major problems.

Another poll found that more voters see McCain as waging a negative campaign than Obama. Six in 10 voters surveyed said that McCain had spent more time attacking Obama than explaining what he would do as president. By the same statistics, voters said Obama was spending more of his time explaining than attacking.

Obama’s favourable rating over McCain also grew higher in the polls. The number of voters who favourably changed their opinion of Obama has doubled. For McCain, voters who said their views of McCain had worsened tripled than those who said it had improved. The main reasons cited by those who said they thought less of McCain were his recent attacks and Palin’s choice as his running mate.

Palin was found guilty in an Alaskan ethical lawsuit filed against her for unduly using her position to influence the removal of Mike Trooper, her former brother-in-law. When Walter Monegan, Trooper’s boss, refused to bend under pressure from Palin and her husband to fire Trooper, she sacked Monegan. Monegan sued her. Coming on the heels of her unimpressive performance in television interviews and vice-presidential debate, the popularity of the Republican candidates plummeted.

McCain’s widely touted condescension towards Obama during the first two television debates backfired. Rather than alienating Obama from voters, the Illinois senator won more supporters. During the first debate in Oxford, Mississippi, moderated by Jim Lehrer, September 26, McCain repeatedly referred to Obama’s inexperience on foreign policy matters by saying "he does not understand" while answering questions on such issues particularly foreign policy, his forte. Fifty-one percent of debate watchers polled by CNN and the Opinion Research Corp. said Obama won that debate with 38 percent saying McCain performed better.

In the second town-hall format of the second debate in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 7 and moderated by Tom Brokaw, he referred to Obama as "that one" though Obama also mimicked McCain’s earlier chant of "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran" in answering questions on how he would handle Iran’s nuclear expansion project. Fifty-four percent of debate watchers polled said Obama won, compared with 30 percent who said McCain did better.

The Arizona senator’s poor ratings were not helped by Palin’s performance during the vice-presidential debate in Saint Louis, Missouri, in the single vice- presidential debate, October 2. Fifty-one percent of debate watchers polled said Joe Biden of Delaware, Obama’s deputy, won, and 36 percent said Palin won.

McCain’s ratings, which had been soaring after he picked Palin, fell rapidly. In the third and last debate, McCain was aggressive. He accused Obama of reneging on accepting public financing for his campaign, raising taxes of rich Americans, voting "Present" during debates on contentious subjects and repeated his earlier comments bordering on Obama’s alleged ties to Ayers. Obama exonerated himself from these accusations by explaining his policies simply.

Apparently, the American public is not swayed by these accusations because Obama has been popular in nearly all the polls after all the three debates. They are mainly unfazed because such issues are not lessening their economic hardship. They feel the Republican Party including McCain, rather than Obama, which precipitated the current American economic crisis, fought two expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which were commonly regarded as unnecessary which eventually fuelled the anti-American sentiment in some regions of the world.

Fifty-eight percent of debate watchers questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll said Obama did better in the debate, while 31 percent voted for Mccain. Watchers’ favourable opinion of Obama rose slightly during the debate from 63 percent at the start to 66 percent at the end, whereas McCain’s favourability rating dropped slightly, from 51 percent to 49 percent. Since the economy was the dominant issue of the debate, 59 percent of those polled said Obama would handle the economy better, 24 points ahead of McCain. During the debate, McCain attacked Obama’s stance on taxes, accusing Obama of seeking tax increases that would "spread the wealth around." But by 15 points, 56 percent to 41, debate watchers polled said Obama has a better tax regime. By a 2-1 margin, 62 percent to 31 percent also said Obama’s health care policies are better. Sixty-six percent of those who watched the debate said Obama articulated himself better with 25 percent saying McCain was more articulate.

McCain had an edge over Obama in two categories. Eighty percent of debate watchers polled said McCain was more aggressive while seven percent said Obama was more aggressive. Fifty-four percent said McCain seemed more like a typical politician during the debate, with 35 percent saying Obama acted more like a typical politician. This last fact endeared Obama more to Independents or undecided voters who lean towards candidates who discuss substance more than personal issues. Among this group, 57 percent said Obama did better, with 31 percent backing McCain as the winner of the debate.

There was a notable gender gap as well. Women believed Obama won the debate by a 62 percent to 28 percent margin. Among men, Obama’s lead was narrower, 54 percent to 35 percent polled in Obama’s favour.

Before these latest poll results, surveys done by Quinnipiac University, the Wall Street Journal, and WashingtonPost.com and released on October 7 revealed that Obama made greater inroads into capturing key battleground states which were Republican strongholds. These are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Colorado. These states have not voted for a Democratic candidate in 16 years and losses in these states could prove to be detrimental to McCain’s presidential hope.

As Obama surged ahead in Michigan, McCain pulled out his campaign from there three weeks ago and conceded the 17 electoral colleges there to Obama.

In Minnesota, the new Quinnipiac poll said Obama had 11 points advantage over McCain, 51 percent to McCain’s 40 percent. A CNN poll in Minnesota also shows Obama’s lead over the Arizona senator is now about nine points.

It was a similar scenario in Wisconsin, where the Quinnipiac poll said Obama was up by 17 points, and where a new CNN poll of polls there shows the Illinois senator with an 11 point lead. That’s nearly double the Democratic nominee’s lead just two and a half weeks ago.

The new Quinnipiac survey also shows that the Arizona senator was down by nine points in Colorado. This was a decline from polls taken the previous week that suggested the race was tied there. With McCain’s path to the nomination continuing to narrow, Colorado may just be a must-win state for the Arizona senator’s White House chances to stay alive. No Democrat has won the state since 1952.

Oyeshina Alli, a professor at the Nigerian Institute of International Relations, NIIR, said Obama’s lead in these states could prove vital for his victory in the election because they are crucial just the way state of Florida proved for President George Bush’s victory over Al Gore in 2000.

Though Bolaji Amosun, a foreign policy expert based in America, was happy at Obama’s high ratings so far, he was also cautious. "Polls taken after political debates do not reflect the views of all Americans because it only represents the views of those who watched the debates. It does not mean he has won the actual election," he said.