Thursday, March 1, 2007

Obama Closing Gap on Clinton

Hillary Clinton is in the lead in the latest Washington Post/ABC poll conducted last week. However, Barack Obama is narrowing the gap between the two, with his rating as preferred Democratic nominee increasing since the January Post/ABC poll.

The January poll had Clinton on 41% compared with 17% for Obama. The latest poll took place between February 22 and 25, after the public argument between the Clinton and Obama campaigns regarding Geffen's comments and his fundraiser in Hollywood.

The result was a drop for Clinton to 36% and an increase for Obama to 24%. And although the sample size of black voters was small, it showed a turnaround for Obama, leading Clinton as the preferred nominee, 60% to 20%.

Al Gore was in third place in the poll on 14%, with John Edwards on 12%.

The same poll however also showed that Clinton's favorable rating is holding up, at close to 50%, while most Democrats don't think her position on the Iraq war is damaging her chances.