WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democrat Barack Obama has pulled ahead of Republican John McCain in the race for the White House, a Gallup/USA Today voter opinion survey published Tuesday shows.
Obama would beat McCain 47 to 44 percent in the November election, in a reversal from Gallup's findings a month ago, which saw McCain ahead of Obama 47 to 45 percent.
Both leads are within the poll's four point margin of error.
A matchup pitting Hillary Clinton against McCain saw the former first lady with a sharper advantage of 49 percent versus 43 for the presumptive Republican nominee, Gallup found in its survey of 1,012 American adults.
A separate poll conducted by Harris Interactive showed that independent voters could hold the key to who wins the White House in the November 4 vote.
The Harris poll, which surveyed 2,317 US adults over 12 days last month, showed that more independents would vote for whomever the Democratic nominee turns out to be than for the presumptive Republican candidate, McCain, in November.
Around 40 percent of independent voters said they would vote for Clinton or Obama, while around 36 percent said they would choose McCain.
Those numbers have "held pretty consistent for the past three months," Harris said.
Obama was favored to win Tuesday's final two primaries, in Montana and South Dakota, for the Democratic nomination, which he was also expected to clinch.
The Gallup poll found that 58 percent of Americans have a positive image of Obama, 56 view McCain favorably and 54 have a good opinion of Clinton.
President George W. Bush's approval rating was just 28 percent.
And the poll depicted Americans as pessimistic about their buying power, with 55 percent saying they are worse off now than they were a year ago and just 26 percent saying the reverse.
Americans have not been so gloomy since Gallup began conducting the survey in 1976, the polling company said.
"Because Americans are usually more positive about their personal situations than the situation 'out there' more broadly, the record-high negative reading when the public is asked about its own financial situations suggests that the current economic downturn is having a significant personal impact," Gallup said.
A glum personal financial outlook has, in the past, led voters to oust the political party in the White House, USA Today said.
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