New poll finds McCain reshaping GOP race

Support for Obama in South
The poll showed a more stable Democratic race. Among Democratic primary voters nationally, Mrs. Clinton, of New York, remains the favorite of 42 percent, compared with 27 percent backing Mr. Obama, of Illinois — essentially unchanged since December. John Edwards of North Carolina remains in third place at 11 percent.

But there were auspicious signs for Mr. Obama as the contest moves to the South, where blacks account for a large share of the Democratic primary electorate.

About half of black Democratic primary voters — 49 percent — said they planned to vote for Mr. Obama, while 34 percent said they backed Mrs. Clinton. Among white Democratic primary voters, 42 percent said they were supporting Mrs. Clinton, while 24 percent said they backed Mr. Obama. On the question of whether the country was ready for a black president, black voters were more skeptical than whites; 47 percent of blacks said the country was prepared to send a black person to the White House, while 56 percent of whites said they felt that way. A majority of whites and blacks, and men and women, considered the country ready for a woman president.

The survey showed that Democratic voters see Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton as evenly matched on several leadership qualities, despite the efforts of both camps to draw distinctions. Virtually the same percentages of Democrats said Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama could unify the country and bring about “real change.” Both were given high marks as potential commanders in chief.

But Mrs. Clinton retains a strong edge on her readiness to be president. Nearly 8 in 10 Democratic primary voters said she had prepared herself well enough for the job and for all the issues that she might face. Only 40 percent said Mr. Obama had, and 53 percent said he needed a few more years to prepare.

Many Democrats said Mrs. Clinton was not getting equal treatment from the news media.

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Fifty-one percent of Democratic primary voters said the news media had been harder on Mrs. Clinton than on other candidates; 12 percent said the news media had been harder on Mr. Obama. Women were particularly likely to feel that she had been unfairly treated, while men were evenly divided.

Still, there are signs of resistance to another Clinton administration. Thirty-eight percent said they thought it was bad for two families — the Bushes and the Clintons — to hold the presidency for so long.

Over all, Democrats appeared to be more intense than Republicans as the election year begins. Fifty-eight percent of the Democrats said they were more enthusiastic than usual about voting this year, compared with 32 percent of the Republicans.

Marina Stefan contributed reporting from New York.

Picking the president: The candidates Click to visit that candidate’s msnbc.com page or click the XML symbol for an RSS feed. John McCain    Barack Obama

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