Democratic US presidential candidate Barack Obama is leading his Republican rival John McCain 53 per cent to 43 per cent among likely voters, according to a Washington Post-ABC News opinion poll released today.
Sixty-four per cent of voters now view Mr Obama favorably, up six percentage points from early September, according to the poll taken after Tuesday night's presidential debate.
Nearly a third of voters have a better opinion of the Illinois senator because of his debate performance while eight per cent have a lower opinion of him, the poll found.
Twelve per cent of voters have a higher opinion of Arizona Senator McCain after the debate, while 26 per cent said they had a worse opinion of him.
The final debate on Wednesday at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, will be the last of three face-offs between the two candidates before the November 4th election.
According to the poll, 52 per cent of voters now strongly favour Mr McCain, down seven percentage points from early September.
More than half of respondents, 59 per cent said the Arizona senator has been mainly attacking his opponent rather than addressing the issues, up from 48 percent who said the same thing in August, the
Postreported.
Sixty-eight percent of respondents said Obama has been mainly addressing the issues.
Mr Obama has surged based on his steady response to the Wall Street crash, with polls showing he is more trusted by Americans to handle economic issues, and Mr McCain's standing has suffered as a consequence.
On taxes, an issue Mr McCain has been aggressively highlighting, Mr Obama has gained a significant lead over his opponent.
According to the poll, Mr Obama now leads McCain 52 per cent to 41 per cent on the question of who is trusted to handle taxes. In late September, the candidates were near even on that question with Obama ahead of McCain by two percentage points, 48 per cent to 46 per cent.
The poll of 1,101 adults, including 945 registered votes, was taking Wednesday though Saturday. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points for the full sample and three-point-five percentage points for the sample of 766 likely voters.
"My friends, we've got them just where we want them," Mr McCain told a rally in the battleground state of Virginia as he attempted to breathe new life into his campaign after a two-week tailspin due largely to his reaction to the US financial crisis.
"We have 22 days to go. We're six points down. The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes," Mr McCain told thousands of cheering supporters in Virginia Beach, joined by his vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin.
Mr Obama, in Toledo, Ohio, laid out what he called an economic rescue plan for the middle class that would include a 90-day foreclosure moratorium for some homeowners and limited penalty-free withdrawals from retirement accounts this year and next.
He would also give businesses a new American jobs tax credit for each new employee they hire in the United States over the next two years.
"We can restore a sense of fairness and balance that will give every American a fair shot at the American dream. And above all, we can restore confidence - confidence in America, confidence in our economy, and confidence in ourselves," he said in speech excerpts released by his campaign.
Many Republican supporters are expressing displeasure at the McCain campaign's negative tactics, after a week in which his camp tried to raise doubts about Obama by emphasising his ties to a former 1960s left-wing radical.
"It's time for John McCain to fire his campaign," conservative columnist William Kristol wrote in The New York Times.
He said the Arizona senator's handlers should "let McCain go back to what he's been good at in the past - running as a cheerful, open and accessible candidate".
Mr McCain unveiled a new stump speech that reprised some of the themes from his well-received September speech accepting his party's nomination - that he has been a fighter all his life and would be one as president, ready on the first day to tackle the problems of the US economy and foreign policy challenges.
"The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now. We have to fight, and you and I know how to do that" he said.
Mr McCain avoided the kind of divisive rhetoric that he employed last week, although he accused Obama of conspiring with the two top Democrats in the US Congress, House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, to raise taxes in order to pay for ambitious spending plans.
"The last president to raise taxes and restrict trade in a bad economy as Senator Obama proposes was Herbert Hoover," McCain said, referring to the 1930s Depression-era president.
Reuters