WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama has vaulted ahead of his Republican rival John McCain, gaining ground in pivotal states and among women voters, new polls showed Wednesday.
Gaining momentum after the first presidential debate and amid a grave financial crisis, Obama now enjoys a seven-point lead nationally and has widened his lead in crucial states -- including Florida, Virginia and Nevada -- needed for victory on November 4, according to a new Time/CNN poll.
Another poll by Quinnipiac University had Obama pulling ahead in the battlegrounds of Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as Florida -- a state that only weeks ago appeared out of reach for the Democrat.
With the troubled economy dominating the campaign, the Illinois senator and McCain headed back to Washington to vote on a revised 700-billion-dollar Wall Street bailout plan designed to stem the country's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The Time/CNN survey shows Obama hitting the threshold of 50 percent, the first time a Democratic White House candidate has done for decades, while McCain was hemorrhaging support among women voters.
Obama, vying to become the first African-American president, was leading 50 to 43 percent overall, up from 46 percent to 41 percent before the two parties held conventions a month ago, the survey said.
He also was leading with women, 55 percent to McCain's 38 percent, the poll said.
Obama had a formidable nine-point lead in Virginia, an 11-point edge in Minnesota and was ahead by four points in Nevada and Florida, the Time poll showed. McCain meanwhile had lost his advantage in Missouri, where the race was now a virtual tie with Obama ahead by one percent.
One McCain aide acknowledged the Arizona senator had an uphill battle.
"When you run for president in an historically challenging political climate, when the party is historically unpopular, and a crisis threatens to make the economy collapse, it is always going to be challenging," McCain communications adviser Nicolle Wallace told AFP.
"But I think ... in the next 30 days John McCain will be recognized and appreciated by voters for his leadership."
Former US president Bill Clinton, openly critical of Obama during the battle for the Democrat nomination, gave a full-throated endorsement on Wednesday, saying the Illinois senator was better placed to handle the economic crisis.
Clinton told a crowd in Fort Pierce, Florida that Obama "has a better understanding of these very complicated economic problems and better advisors."
The Quinnipiac University polls found voters trust Obama more to handle the financial turmoil, and that he seems to be convincing Americans he is ready to be president.
The polls also suggest Obama won Friday's presidential debate and that McCain's running mate Sarah Palin is suffering from sliding popularity, after a stunning initial impact on the race.
The stakes will be high for Palin in a vice-presidential debate on Thursday against her more experienced Democratic counterpart, Senator Joseph Biden.
Palin, a first-time Alaska governor and political unknown until a month ago, faces intense scrutiny after her performance in a few television interviews.
"It is difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung so dramatically, so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac polling institute.
The surveys show that in Pennsylvania, Obama leads McCain by a gaping 54 percent to 39 percent after the debate, compared to 49 percent to 43 percent before the debate.
He is up 51 percent to 43 percent in swing state Florida, compared to a 49 to 43 percent lead before Friday's first of three debates.
And in Ohio, Obama is up eight points.
Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio have a history of shaping presidential elections. No candidate has won the presidency since 1960 without securing two of the three battlegrounds.
The Pew Research Center meanwhile gave Obama a seven-point national lead Wednesday over McCain with 49 to 42 percent and a separate Washington Post/ABC national poll found Obama holds a slim lead over McCain, drawing 50 percent support from likely voters against 46 percent for McCain.
The Quinnipiac polls among likely voters in the three states were conducted in two groups, between September 22 and 26, and September 27 and 29. The maximum margin of error was 3.4 percent.
The Time/CNN poll questioned 1,133 likely voters from September 26-29 and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
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