Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s choice of John Edwards as his running mate was received favorably by the public, polls suggest, but it has made little difference so far in the race against President Bush.
Kerry strategists are trying to lower expectations for a “bounce” in the polls that presidential candidates sometimes get after choosing a running mate or attending a convention. Bush strategists were quick to raise expectations of a double-digit bounce for the Kerry-Edwards team by the end of the Democratic National Convention.
Tad Devine, a Kerry campaign strategist, said he does not believe Republican claims of a bounce of 12 percentage points to 15 percentage points.
“We’ve gotten the bounce already that we’re going to get,” Devine said. “If you look at the Democratic vote, it has already consolidated behind John Kerry.”
Devine and Bush campaign strategist Matthew Dowd have both detected slight gains for Kerry in the polls after the Edwards’ choice, the two told “Fox News Sunday.”
But those looking for a Kerry surge saw a shift of only a few points, often within a poll’s margin of error.
According to an AP-Ipsos poll released Thursday, Bush had a slight lead over Kerry, with Bush at 49 percent, Kerry at 45 percent and independent Ralph Nader at 3 percent.
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Compiled from news services and edited by Patrick Olsen (polsen@tribune.com) and Drew Sottardi (dsottardi@tribune.com)
