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Obama leads McCain by 6 points - poll
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-24 11:38 WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama has a 6-point lead over Republican John McCain in the presidential race as a growing percentage of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday.
Obama leads McCain by 47 percent to 41 percent for the November 4 election, unchanged from last month. But 55 percent believed Obama, a 46-year-old first-term Illinois senator, would be the riskier choice for president, while 35 percent said that of McCain, 71, a fourth-term Arizona senator, the poll said. But Obama's message of change may resonate with a disgruntled electorate after eight years of a Republican-run White House. Only 13 percent of those polled believed the country was headed in the right direction. That was the lowest percentage on this question in the NBC/Journal poll's history.
Obama's lead over McCain expands to 13 points when third-party candidates Ralph Nader and Bob Barr are included, with Obama at 48 percent, McCain at 35 percent, Nader at 5 percent and Barr at 2 percent, the poll said. The survey of 1,003 registered voters was conducted July 18-21, during Obama's trip to the Middle East and Europe. It had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. |