Each week, the Spinnaker will be keeping you up-to-date on the 2008 presidential election: who’s leading in the latest polls and where they stand on key political issues.

Gallup Daily Poll for Oct. 21 has Sen. Barack Obama with a 10-point lead over Sen. John McCain. The lead varies between 7 and 10 percentage points among likely voters, depending on turnout expectations, according to Gallup.

DEMOCRATS
Barack Obama
52%

REPUBLICANS
John McCain
42%

Source:  Gallup.

Election notes
•  General Colin Powell endorsed Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama Oct. 19 on “Meet the Press” with Tom Brokaw. Referring to why he endorsed Obama over Sen. John McCain, Powell said: “I found that [McCain] was a little unsure as to [how to] deal with the economic problems that we were having, and almost every day there was a different approach to the problem.”

•  Vice Presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden said Oct. 19: “Mark my words: it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.” He also said Obama and Biden supporters would have to stand by them and trust them as they make tough, and possibly unpopular foreign policy decisions.

•  Libertarian Presedential candidate Bob Barr recently discussed the absurdity of voting for the lesser of two evils: “I’m not calling McCain or Obama evil, I’m saying if that’s the philosophy, go in there and vote for the lesser of the two evils, you’re still voting for somebody you don’t believe in, who is not going to move our country and move it in the right direction.”
Presidential Election countdown
13 days until the election Nov. 4.

Compiled by James Cannon II.