Poll: Obama leads McCain nationally
THE RACE: The presidential race nationally
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THE NUMBERS
Barack Obama, 47 percent
John McCain, 42 percent
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OF INTEREST:
Obama's lead is about the same as in June, before he took his trip to the Middle East and Europe. Nearly three-quarters say the country is in either a recession or depression, and there's been a big increase in those citing rising prices as the top economic problem. Solid majorities also say jobs are hard to find in their areas. Almost nine in 10 say that regarding the economy, it matters who becomes president. People believe Obama would do a better job than McCain on strengthening the economy by 15 percentage points, the same margin by which they prefer McCain for handling terrorism. Yet both candidates' advantages on those subjects have shrunk since June. One in five say Obama if elected would do too much for African-Americans, while almost half say McCain would do too much for the rich.
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The Pew Research Center poll was conducted from July 23-27. It included telephone interviews with 1,241 registered voters, for whom the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
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COMPLETE RESULTS: http://people-press.org
