POLLWATCH:DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL candidate Barack Obama has widened his lead over Republican John McCain in most United States polls to an average eight points over the last week, writes Mark Hennessy
The Gallup daily tracking poll put Obama seven points ahead and this figure stayed constant during all of last week, while the CBS/New York Times and ABC/Washington Post polls put him ahead 13 points and nine points respectively.
The latest figures from Newsweek's poll put the gap between the two men at 12 points in favour of the Democrat, while two others, the Rassmussen Reports and Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby tracking polls have the gap at eight and five points respectively.
Incidentally, the Rasmussen polls shows that Obama's support has stayed remarkably consistent, at between 50-52 per cent for the last 31 days, though Reuters said his lead in their polls had fallen from a height of 12 points.
In North Carolina, which has voted Republican in nine of the last 10 presidential elections, Obama and McCain are in a dead heat. In one poll, Rasmussen puts McCain two points ahead, and another, by a local television stations, put him two behind.
In New Hampshire, the McCain campaign has suffered a dramatic change of fortunes.
He now trails Obama by 15 points in the state, according to the Boston Globe, in a state where he led by two points just a month ago.
Badly affected by mounting economic difficulties facing the US, the poll also found that McCain is being hurt by the Bush administration's low popularity, an increasingly unpopular running mate, Sarah Palin, and the perceived negativity of his campaign.
Meanwhile, three-quarters of those surveyed said the Democrat has the best chance to win, which could keep some Republican supporters at home on November 4th because they may think that their vote does not count.