By FREDRIC U. DICKER and ED ROBINSON
June 12, 2008
Barack Obama leads John McCain in a new presidential poll, and has made some inroads attracting Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters now that she has dropped out of the race.
But the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows the Illinois senator still has work to do with some key voting segments.
Obama leads, McCain 47 to 41 percent, according to the survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted June 6-9. With Clinton out, 61 percent of her voters said they plan to vote for Obama in November, compared with 19 percent who said they'd vote for McCain.
"Hillary's embrace of Obama really made a difference," Republican pollster Neil Newhouse told the Journal.
Women also appeared to flock to Obama, giving him 52 percent of their support to McCain's 33 percent.
But the Arizona senator leads Obama, 48 to 41, among women 65 and over, and 44 to 38 among white suburban women. Obama also has trouble connecting to white voters, trailing McCain by 49 to 41 percent.
A Gallup poll also released yesterday yielded similar results.
Overall, that survey had Obama leading McCain, 48 percent to 42 percent, with a large number of women jumping to the Illinois senator.
Additional Reporting by Carl Campanile
