Rasmussen Discusses the Latest Polls

HANNITY: And this is a FOX News alert. FOX News with Opinion Dynamics and Scott Rasmussen polls released today show that the race is still anyone's to win, but these five key battleground states could decide who our next president is going to be.

Now Michigan continues to point toward Obama, with the Illinois senator holding a seven-point lead over John McCain. In the state of Florida, Senator McCain maintains last week's five-point margin leading Obama, 51-46.

McCain also continues to lead in the state of Ohio 50 to Obama's 46 picking up one additional point since last Monday.

And finally it looks like the two candidates have broken the deadlock in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Obama is now up 48-45 in the Keystone state and in the great state of Virginia, McCain is now leading by two.

Joining us now is the president of the Rasmussen Report, Scott Rasmussen.

How are you, Scott? Good to see you, my friend.

SCOTT RASMUSSEN, RASMUSSEN REPORTS: Good to see you, Sean. Great to be here.

HANNITY: We always appreciate you being on the program. All right, let's start with these last two, because these were pretty much deadlocked. Republicans were excited at the idea that Pennsylvania would be in play. There were other polls that corroborated your polls, but they were worried about your tie in Virginia.

It seems that there is -- those states are moving in the directions you thought they would move.

RASMUSSEN: Well, they're moving in the direction of their historic patterns, but they're still very, very close, and Republicans need to be very worried about Virginia. I mean this is a state that has not gone for the Democrats since 1964.

To be honest, all through the summer when the polls were close, I expected you'd see a little more movement in John McCain's direction. It's not happening, so this is a cause for concern for the GOP.

In Pennsylvania, you've got the reverse situation. The number that jumps out at me there is not the fact that Barack Obama has a three-point lead, but that 5 percent of voters remain undecided.

HANNITY: Yes.

RASMUSSEN: . higher than any of the other swing states, and, quite frankly, with the economic turmoil we have right now and with everything else going on, Barack Obama should be concerned that those people aren't jumping into his column right now.

HANNITY: Well, I think I would agree, but, remember, he was the one speaking before his rich millionaire friends out in San Francisco that refer to the people in Pennsylvania as bitter Americans clinging to their guns and religion.

All right. Let me go through this one scenario. Michigan -- I am stunned because I know that all my friends in Michigan feel that the Democratic governor who raised taxes and promised to increase revenue by raising taxes has been an economic disaster for the state, so why they wouldn't look more Republican is surprising.

So my next question -- if it's not going to be Michigan, is Wisconsin, is Minnesota, are they potential -- well, there's one Minnesota poll that showed it was dead even at 45.

RASMUSSEN: Yes, let's -- pull back, first of all, in Michigan, there's more uncertainty about how people are going to vote. More than one out of five voters in Michigan say they could change their mind between now and Election Day.

There are signs that this is still a little bit unstable. Yes, it's leaning in Barack Obama's direction, it's better for him than Pennsylvania is looking right now, but it's still a competitive state.

I would say that as more likely to change perhaps than Minnesota. Wisconsin is very competitive. There are a number of states that are -- that people are waiting to see what happens in this debate.

HANNITY: Let me ask.

RASMUSSEN: And they're also interested in how the candidates respond to the economic turmoil.

HANNITY: If you were McCain, though, of the three states, which one would you go after?

RASMUSSEN: I would go after Pennsylvania and I would go after Michigan, and just center right around there and keep working Ohio as well. Don't take that for granted.

COLMES: Is there a turn-around as of last week, Scott, based on what's happening with the economy and the people are kind of disgusted? The issue of were Republicans the one calling for deregulation, McCain being a deregulator, and now people are saying, we need to do the very thing Republicans warned against and fought against?

Is that helping Obama?

RASMUSSEN: Well, people don't connect the dots quite the way you just did, Alan, but let's start with the basic thing. The trend nationally has moved in Obama's direction. He was down by three points in our daily tracking poll a week ago, he's up one now.

But very little of it has been an increase in support for Obama. It's been decreasing support for John McCain, and as far as the economic issues, only 28 percent of Americans support the proposed bailout plan right now, so there's a lot of.

COLMES: Right.

RASMUSSEN: . a lot of work to be done on that, and it's treacherous ground for both candidates.

COLMES: Why is McCain losing support?

RASMUSSEN: Well, partly because of the economic concerns. What has been happening -- and look, he was up three points in the peak of his bounce. When the shift took place, we began to talk about the economy, that is not a good issue for John McCain.

Even in the five battleground states, even in the states that he is winning, he is not seen as the better candidate on the economy, so the more we talk about this issue, the more helps Barack Obama.

COLMES: We're going to get into this with Al Sharpton in a couple of minutes. Is race a factor? Are there people who will say one thing to the pollster and do something else in the sanctity and privacy of the voting booth because of race?

RASMUSSEN: Well, are there some? Absolutely. None of us know how many. A couple of years ago with Harold Ford running in Tennessee, it was a very minor factor.

Our polls do tell us that 4 percent of Democrats say they could never vote for an African-American, but they're already, you know, in the McCain column at this point in time. I don't think it's going to be a huge issue, but it could be worth a point or two at Election Day.

COLMES: All right, we're going to get into that, in fact, in just a couple of minutes with Al Sharpton who's going to be here to talk about that based on another poll that just came out which said that could swing the election.

But Scott, we thank you very much for being with us tonight.

RASMUSSEN: Thanks, Alan.

COLMES: Appreciate your time. Thanks so much for being with us as always.