Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli have all taken double-digit leads in the latest Survey USA poll released today.  Of particular significance, each candidate now finds himself above 50 percent while their Democrat opponents are mired in the low-40s.

Especially of note, look at how each of the Dems polls –

Creigh “What’s In Your Wallet?” Deeds — 40%
Jody “Financial Fantasyland” Wagner — 42%
Steve “Who Am I?  Why Am I Here?” Shannon — 42%.

Creigh…  You ARE the weakest link…

Now on to the internals –

The poll oversampled the Central Virginia region.  Unfortunately for the Dems, that was the region where they polled the best and yet they STILL got thumped in the overall poll.  Now, there probably was a rationale behind the heavy sampling of that region, most likely on the assumption that Deeds would drive greater turnout there or perhaps it was based upon the 2009 primary numbers and 2008 general election turnout.  Of course, anyone assuming all the Democrat voters from 2008 show up at the polls this November does so at their own peril — more on that shortly.

The bottom line is McDonnell & Co. lead in EVERY region.  McDonnell even leads in NOVA 56-41.  There’s lots of other juicy goodness in these internals.  McD swamps Deeds among independents and men, accounting for much of his overall 15-point lead.  Even in the categories where McDonnell is hovering just under 50, he’s still a few points above Deeds.

We now turn to the Democrat spin aimed at discrediting this poll –

First up…

@MoElleithee: Flawed new Survey USA poll in VA has McCain winning VA

52-43. Oops! Back to the drawing board! http://tinyurl.com/nznvqs

@lowkell Also, SurveyUSA universe went 52%-43% for McCain last year.

In actuality, Virginia went 53%-46% for Obama.
http://tinyurl.com/mbae6m

OOPS!

Mohammed Elleithee and Lowell Feld apparently can’t read polls.

52-43 is the breakdown of LIKELY voters in 2009.  Just goes to show that
Obama voters aren’t very likely to come out to vote without him atop the ballot.  (Haven’t these guys been paying attention to the recent elections where The Teleprompted One hasn’t been on the ballot such as the runoff for the Georgia U.S. Senate race or the local races in NOVA the past six months?)

Let me explain this so that even a liberal Democrat can understand it.  If only the people who are likely to vote in the 2009 election had shown up to vote in 2008, McCain would have won Virginia 52-43.  Trust me.  Creigh Deeds is not going to draw a massive turnout of these new voters the way Obama did nor will he be able to rely upon anyone else to deliver them for him.  These Obama voters are “One Hit Wonders” (although I’m still struggling whether to label them as Kajagoogoo or Tommy Tutone voters.)

Strike One.

Next batter up…

Lowell raised some discrepancies between the last SurveyUSA poll and this one only to later post the following:

UPDATE: I just heard from SurveyUSA news director Ken Alper, who said, ”just saw your post and wanted to make sure you see the poll we released today is of likely voters – previously, during our pre-primary polling, we asked the November matchup questions of registered voters.”

You would have thought he might have wanted to check something as basic as RV vs. LV first before spouting off.

Strike Two.

Let’s give them one more shot at it before we retire the side.

@jamesemartin Survey USA (June 29th)- Kilgore 49%, Kaine 39%

Ah, so sorry.  First of all, that was a full month before now and well before Jerry Kilgore imploded with that ridiculous ad claiming Timmy! was so anti-death penalty that he wouldn’t even execute Adolf Hitler.  It was also before public sentiment turned strongly against President Bush following the botched job by the Fed. gov’t on Hurricane Katrina later that summer as well as the feeling that the war in Iraq was turning into a quagmire.  Mr. Martin also fails to note that according to Real Clear Politics, Survey USA was, in the end, the most accurate poll in Virginia’s 2005 race.

STEEEE-RIKE THREE!  YOU’RE OUT!!!

This election is far from over, but without a doubt, Republicans hold the upper hand today.  As Obama’s poll number continue to sink (even an NPR poll out today put his approval down at 53 percent and I hear a poll from Pew to be released soon will reflect a VERY dramatic drop), whatever advantage he might have been able to offer Deeds & Co. is rapidly disappearing.

In the end, this comes down to two candidates. First up there is Bob McDonnell, who has spelled out in great detail what he will do as Governor and how he will do it. Then there is the other candidate, Creigh Deeds, whose entire campaign appears to be based upon reacting in one of three ways to anything Bob McDonnell says –

1.)  Offer up a McDonnell-lite me too! proposal

2.)  Blast McDonnell’s plans on [insert topic here] because it will rob money from kids

3.)  Wink and smile slyly as an indication that he will raise taxes.

Deeds and the Dems appear to be waiting for McDonnell to either call one of their campaign staffers Poopyhead or else claim that Deeds wouldn’t even execute Josef Stalin.  Don’t count on either of those things happening.