Cast your votes for a 'warm' Obama or a 'tough' McCain

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-8  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

ASK people to blurt out their first words about the two presidential candidates and one in five say "change" or "outsider" for Barack Obama and "old" for John McCain, according to the latest poll.

Those are not only the top responses for each man but the ones used most often since January, when fewer than one in 10 volunteered those descriptions, poll organizers Associated Press and Yahoo News said yesterday.

Four months from election day, the survey underscores that people see quality and question marks in both contenders as they struggle to control their images. Lack of experience is the next most frequently offered view of Obama, 46, the Democrat who came to the Senate from Illinois less than four years ago. For McCain, 71, the Republican senator from Arizona and Vietnam prisoner of war, it's his military service.

"My husband and I are about the same age as McCain, and I don't think we'd be in a position to take this country in the direction it needs to go," said Rosemary Bates, 65, of Barre, Vermont, an Obama supporter. "We've grown up in a different era. Something is not working and it needs to be changed."

Obama is seen as warmer and more empathetic, McCain stronger and tougher. When people are asked whether specific words and phrases apply to each man, the Democrat does 12 percentage points better for caring about "people like you" and is 11 points more likeable. McCain has a 24-point edge as a military leader and is 9 points more decisive.

The Republican's military service "gives him credibility when it comes to running a war, and to running this country when it's at war," said Lydia Muri, 52, a McCain backer from San Diego. "If you haven't been in that situation, it takes away from your credibility."