Hillary Clinton has pulled further ahead of Barack Obama in the race to be Democratic presidential candidate, according to the latest opinion poll.
And with economic troubles playing on voters' minds, Mrs Clinton last night proposed a second economic stimulus package.
She called for new steps to address the deepening housing crisis, including a $30 billion emergency fund to help states buy repossessed properties and provide mortgage restructuring.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton
Mrs Clinton overtook Mr Obama in a daily Gallup tracking poll earlier this week and the latest Reuters/Zogby survey shows her leading the Illinois senator 49 per cent to 42 per cent in the contest to face Republican Senator John McCain in November.
But according to both the Gallup and Reuters/Zogby polls, Mr McCain would beat either Democrat candidate in November's election. But such early polls have little significance when the election is still more than seven months away.
The poll figures conflict with Democrat votes already cast. Mrs Clinton trails Mr Obama in the state-by-state contest for delegates that began in January.
Mr Obama, who could be America's first black president, is trying to rebound after a rocky patch. He delivered a major speech this week on race relations but did not disassociate himself from controversial comments by his long-time Chicago pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Much of the debate on the campaign trail currently surrounds the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Campaigning in Indiana, Mrs Clinton said she was never enthusiastic about the agreement despite records showing she supported it when her husband, Bill Clinton, was president.
The accord is deeply unpopular among Democrats in "Rust Belt" states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, which holds the next nominating contest on April 22nd, because it led to the loss of manufacturing jobs.
The Obama camp accused Mrs Clinton of "misrepresenting" her position.