More bad news for Barack Obama this morning, as a new poll shows his lead in major swing states continuing to diminish. According to the Quinnipiac University poll released today:

• Florida: Obama leads McCain 46-44; Down from 47-43 on June 18th
• Ohio: Obama leads McCain 46-44; Down from 48-42 on June 18th
• Pennsylvania: Obama leads McCain 49-42;  Down from 52-40

What happened? One explanation could be the new attention payed to offshore drilling. Voters in each state were shown to support the expansion by a 29-30% margin. Barack Obama hasn’t exactly been quiet about his opposition to it, while McCain staunchly supports it.

“While Obama was on tour, trying to show voters he could handle world affairs, voters were home trying to fill their gas tanks,” Brown added.

“The same voters who give President George W. Bush job approval ratings that are more than 2 – 1 negative want Congress to go along with the President on offshore oil drilling…”

Iraq still remains an important issue, but only in Florida does it outweigh energy/economic policy. While voters still believe it was a mistake to go in in the first place, voters in all states agree with McCain’s plan to keep troops in the country until it’s stabilized.

But by margins of 10 to 20 percentage points, voters in each state support McCain’s plan to keep U.S. troops in Iraq with no fixed date for full withdrawal, rather than Obama’s plan to set a fixed timetable for withdrawal.

All of this while President Bush maintains approval ratings of 28% in Florida, 30% in Ohio, and 24% in Pennsylvania. Apparently voters don’t believe McCain is a third Bush term as much as Barack Obama and the far left do.

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The bad news for Obama doesn’t stop there, however. Over at Rasmussen Reports, we find that 30% of Conservative Democrats intend to vote for John McCain.

Thirty percent (30%) of conservative Democrats say they’re voting for John McCain. Rasmussen Reports data also shows the Republican hopeful picking up support from 19% of White Democrats and 15% of Democrats over the age of 50.

Among liberal Democrats, 23% have a favorable opinion of McCain. 90% say the same about Barack Obama.