Harris Poll: Obama leads Clinton among Independents - closing gap with DEMS

[RiverStone]

Support for Barack Obama Surges, According to The Harris Poll

ROCHESTER, N.Y., March 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new Harris Poll
finds that Senator Barack Obama has increased his support substantially
since a previous poll in early February, and his support is now almost as
strong as that for Senator Hillary Clinton.

<snip>

This is a Harris Poll of 2,776 U.S. adults surveyed online by Harris
Interactive(R) between March 1 and 12, 2007. Respondents were able to
review the list of all 26 potential candidates to say whom they would
consider and prefer. Like all polls conducted well before an election, it
should not be read as a prediction. Rather, it is a snap shot of the
presidential "horse race," at a very early stage in the race. We will
review the data on the Republican candidates in an upcoming column.

Senator Obama's gains since the February poll include:
-- Among all adults, 41 percent would now consider voting for him; the
same number as would consider voting for Senator Clinton. In February,
Clinton led Obama by 45 percent to 37 percent on this question;
-- Among Democrats, 59 percent would consider voting for Obama, up from 53
percent in February. This is still below the number of Democrats who
would consider voting for Senator Clinton (68%), but her support is
down from 74 percent in February;
-- Among Independents, people are slightly more likely to consider voting
for Obama (42%) than for Clinton (36%). In February Clinton led Obama
by 40 percent to 35 percent;
-- When it comes to the public's first choice for president, Clinton still
leads Obama by 15 percent to 12 percent among all adults. However, this
is down from a 20 percent to 10 percent lead in February;
-- Among Democrats, Senator Clinton still has a clear (27% to 21%) lead
over Obama as first choice, but this is down from 36 percent to 18
percent in February;
-- Among Independents, almost equal numbers prefer Clinton (10%) and
Obama (9%). In February Clinton had a two-to-one (16% to 8%) lead.

complete story:

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-15-2007/0004547020&EDATE=

[William769]

1. And then we have this poll.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/14/democrats.poll/index.html

:shrug:

[RiverStone]

2. It's a marathon...

And it looks like Obama is gaining ground within every voting group. Frankly, any poll which does NOT proclaim the MSM's darling HRC as the presumptive nominee is refreshing (to me anyway).

At this very early point in the race, I believe trends are as important as who actually leads.