Economy gives Obama clear leads in polls

Voters' focus on the Wall Street crisis and the economy -- long an advantage for Barack Obama over John McCain -- could be showing up in the polls.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll released early today found that Democrat Obama now leads Republican McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent among likely voters. Two weeks ago, just after the Republican National Convention that gave McCain a bump in support, the same poll found the race even, with McCain at 49 percent and Obama at 47 percent.

The Post reports that the turmoil in the financial industry and growing pessimism about the economy have altered the shape of the presidential race, giving Obama the first clear lead. More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, the paper says.

UPDATE: The McCain campaign quickly set up a conference call with reporters in which its pollsters said that the Post poll is an "outlier" not representative of other surveys and that they believe the national race is still neck and neck.

Six weeks from Election Day, Obama also has his biggest lead yet in the Diageo/Hotline tracking poll -- 48 percent to 42 percent among registered voters.
Among the 56 percent of voters who say the economy is their top issue, Obama leads 51 percent to 39 percent. He also now leads among white women, 46 percent to 45 percent. A week ago, McCain led 53 percent to 37 percent among that key group.