by Mark Silva
For all the turbulence on the campaign front – with a heated battle underway between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania – the latest results of the Gallup Poll’s daily track released today portray the senator from Illinois with a comfortable national lead over Clinton.
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The survey of Democratic voters conducted Thursday through Saturday found Obama favored among 50 percent and Clinton 41 percent.
“The latest news in the campaign focuses on remarks Obama made, first reported on Friday, about working class and rural voters being “bitter” about the economy,” Gallup’s Jeff Jones notes today. “Initial indications are that the controversial remarks has not yet hurt Obama — his 9-percentage point lead in the current results (based on March 10-12 polling) is right in line with the average 8.5-point lead he held in the prior six days’ tracking results.
“Also, his lead in the current results shows a slight improvement from his 7-point advantage in March 9-11 polling,” Jones notes. “As the story gains momentum in the press, the coming days’ tracking results will measure its ultimate impact.
“The controversy comes just as Obama has established himself as the leader in Democratic voters’ preferences for the nomination, holding a statistically significant lead in each of the past seven days’ tracking results,” he continues. “Prior to that, he had only managed to hold a significant lead in as many as four consecutive days’ results, doing this in late March.
In test match-ups with the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain, Obama is favored among 46 percent, McCain 43 percent, and Clinton is favored among 46 percent, McCain 45 percent – both statistical ties.
See the full report here.