Kerry eliminates gap with Bush in polls

Two national polls released Thursday showed that US Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has significantly narrowed his gap with President George W. Bush, settling into a virtual tie in the race for the White House.

The Pew Research Center and Harris Interactive found equal levels of support for the two candidates as Kerry rebounded from the withering attacks the Republicans have launched during the party's convention that ended on Sept. 2.

The latest of two Pew polls, conducted Sept. 11-14 showed Bush and Kerry were tied with 46 percent of support among registered voters each. An earlier Pew poll, conducted Sept. 8-10, showed Bush led Kerry by 52 percent of registered voters to 40 percent.

While Bush leads Kerry on Iraq and the war on terrorism, Kerry regained his advantage over Bush on the economy, the Pew polls showed. "This poll finds a lot of the positive impact Bush had in the convention remains. But Bush's vulnerabilities on Iraq and the economy continue," Pew said in a report.

The Harris Interactive poll for The Wall Street Journal, which was conducted Sept. 9-13, gave Kerry a 48 to 47 percent lead over Bush,

Soon after the Republican convention, Bush led Kerry by up to 11 percentage points, forcing Kerry to shuffle his staff and sharpen his message. Several other recent polls have shown Bush's convention bounce was fading.

Source: Xinhua