McCain closing gap slightly, separating himself from Bush, poll says

A new national poll released this afternoon suggests the presidential race is tightening ever so slightly.

Among likely voters, Democrat Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain 51 percent to 46 percent -- down from 53 percent to 45 percent two weeks ago, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey.

Among registered voters, Obama's lead has shrunk to 53 percent to 43 percent from 56 percent to 42 percent, the poll found.

The survey also found that Obama continues to hold sizable leads in being better able than McCain to handle the financial crisis and to help the middle class.

But it found a significant change in how voters view McCain and whether he would bring a break from President Bush.

Now, a majority of voters -- 52 percent of likely voters and 50 percent of registered voters -- believe that McCain would mean "mostly different policies." Two weeks ago, 54 percent of likely voters and 56 percent of registered voters said that McCain would mostly carry out Bush's policies.

McCain said in last week's final presidential debate and in every stump speech since that he is not Bush and if Obama wanted to run against Bush, he should have run four years ago.

The survey was conducted Friday through Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points among likely voters and 3 percentage points among registered voters.