Obama Faces Tough Task to Convince White Voters

Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama may be close to locking up his party nomination but he faces the tough task of convincing the white voters, including some in his own party, to vote for him in the November elections, a just released poll shows.

Obama, the Newsweek poll shows, trails presumptive Republican nominee John McCain by 12 percentage points 40 per cent to 52 per cent - among registered white voters. His challenger Hillary Clinton too trails McCain but by a much smaller margin 44 per cent to 48 per cent.

But among voters overall, however, Obama fares better, tying McCain 46 per cent to 46 per cent in a hypothetical match-up. This is down slightly from the last Newsweek Poll, conducted in late April, in which Obama led McCain 47 per cent to 44 per cent.

In that contest, he is boosted by a strong showing among non-whites, leading McCain 68 per cent to 25 per cent. Clinton leads McCain 65 per cent to 25 per cent among non-whites.

But even this result shows some of the electoral challenges facing Obama in a year when Democrats generally appear to hold an electoral advantage, boasting a 15 point advantage in generic party identification over Republicans, 53 per cent to 38 per cent.

Clinton fares slightly better against McCain: 48 per cent to 44 per cent. She enjoys this slight edge even though Obama leads Clinton 50 per cent to 42 per cent as the choice of registered Democrats for the party's nomination.

Source: NDTV