Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter
Senator John McCain gives a thumbs-up as he spots friends on the ground upon his arrival at the Dayton International Airport in Vandalia, Ohio, on Monday. - AP
UNITED STATES Senator Barack Obama is being advised to avoid any inclination to pull off a Usain Bolt stunt by celebrating before the race is over.
"He needs to continue doing what he is doing and run through the tape; no easing up in any way," Dr Paul Robertson, three-time campaign director of the People's National Party (PNP), has advised.
Obama is seeking to return the Democratic Party to the United States' White House for the first time in eight years. He is also gunning to become the first black president in the world's only superpower.
Standing in Obama's way is Republican challenger Senator John McCain, but the African-American has an average six-point lead in several opinion polls.
A new poll released Monday gave Obama a 4.8 percentage-point lead over McCain. Obama leads McCain 49.9 per cent to 45.1 per cent, according to Zogby Inter-national, C-Span and Reuters.
Obama leads McCain by nine points (52-43 per cent) in a national Gallup poll.
The latest national Rasmussen poll says Obama leads McCain by eight points (52-44 per cent). The latest Electoral College projections show Obama leading 260-163.
Obama leads 286-174, Ras-mussen said. A total of 270 electoral votes are needed to win the White House.
America votes on November 4 to decide the next president. Early voting has already begun across some states.
"The campaign needs to keep on message. They seem to be doing everything that they can do. Obama now needs to keep doing what he is doing. He can't run it like Usain in the 100 metres. He can't afford to celebrate too early," Robertson says.
Bolt, the world-record holder for the 100m and 200m and Olympic champion in both events, ran a jaw-dropping 9.69 seconds to win the short sprint in Beijing, leaving the world to speculate about what his time would have been had he not slowed down to celebrate 20m from the tape.
Room to celebrate
However, in the case of the US presidential race, Robertson does not believe Obama has enough room to celebrate.
"I expect the polls to tighten before the 4th," he said.
Delano Seiveright, a member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) campaign team that piloted the party to state power last year, has a similar view. Seivewright believes the writing is on the wall for McCain but said Obama cannot afford to be complacent.
"He needs to stay on message, continue boosting his ground organisation in the battleground states and increase his spending on advertising in these battleground states," Seivewright said.
The Generation 2000 (G2K) member said that if McCain is going to spring a comeback, he must continue to mobilise his base.
"His running mate Sarah Palin must continue to energise the con-servatives and he must try and bring out the independent votes. I believe they are more likely to vote for him than Obama," Seivewright said.
'Running scared'
Former JLP leader Edward Seaga said in this week's Sunday Gleaner that he gets the impression that McCain is "running scared". It is also a view shared by former PNP General Secretary Donald Buchanan.
"There is a relationship between the Democratic Party and the PNP. They have always invited us to their convention and we have always invited them to our conference," Buchanan told The Gleaner.
"We are particularly pleased to see the posture of Obama. He has an enlightened international outlook," he said.
daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com
Supporters of Republican vice-presidential candidate, Governor Sarah Palin, hold signs during a rally at Hurkamp Park in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Monday. - AP photos
