Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee may be the favourite in this year's US general elections but the first-time black-American senator has some hurdles to overcome if he is going to find himself in the Oval Office.
A first poll since the end of the Democrats' campaign by The Washington Post/ABC News shows that the presumptive Republican nominee Senator John McCain and Senator Obama are running about even with independent voters, seen as the group that is going to play a key role in the November 4 election.
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The opinion poll shows even a small shift to the Republican candidate over the last one month.
The poll found that Vietnam war veteran McCain, 72, was 'more credible' on fighting terrorism and was split evenly with Obama on who is the stronger leader on the Iraq war.
But on other key attributes and issues -- including the economy -- Obama, who hopes to be the first black-American US President, has advantages among independents.
At a time when the general feeling is that Obama, 47, a senator from Illinois needs to unite the Democrats if the party is to have a good shot at the presidency the survey is showing that while nine in 10 Republicans now support McCain, only close to eight in 10 Democrats said they support Obama.
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Nearly a quarter of those who said they favoured Hillary Clinton over Obama for the nomination currently prefer McCain for the general election, virtually unchanged from polls taken before Clinton suspended her campaign.
Interestingly, the survey has shown that Clinton remains the top pick for the Vice Presidential slot, a decision that the Senator must come to terms with in the coming weeks 46 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents pick her as their top choice, and no other Democrat breaks out of single digits.
The new survey shows Obama running ahead of McCain by 48 per cent to 42 per cent among all adults. Among registered voters, the margin is essentially the same -- 49 per cent to 45 per cent.
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The poll has shown that a majority of voters, 55 per cent, said they are enthusiastic about Obama's candidacy, while 42 per cent said the same for McCain.
Three times as many said they are "very enthusiastic" about Obama as said so about McCain; and 91 per cent of Obama's supporters have said that they are enthusiastic about their candidate whereas only 73 per cent of GOP's presumptive nominee felt that way.
The two candidates are also evenly matched on the question of who is the stronger leader, with 46 per cent of the public rating each as top.
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Obama has significant advantages in many areas -- he leads by 34 points as the candidate who would do more to bring needed change to Washington, by 18 points on empathy, by 15 points on standing up to lobbyists and special interests, and by 13 points on better representing people's "personal values."
But McCain's clearest advantage on the issues is on dealing with terrorism where he has a 14-point edge. He also has a narrow edge on who is better equipped to handle international affairs. But on Iraq, the public is evenly split, with 47 per cent saying they trust McCain more and 46 per cent having more faith in Obama.
The poll has shown no gender gap with Obama holding a seven-point edge among men and a six-point advantage among women. Whites break for McCain by 12 points, while African Americans support Obama by better than a 9 to 1 margin.
The next US President will assume office on January 20, 2009.
