DEMOCRAT BARACK Obama's lead over his Republican rival, John McCain, has dropped by one percentage point to three points, according to the latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby opinion poll released yesterday.
The Illinois senator has a margin of just over six percentage points on McCain in the average "poll of polls" compiled by the website Realclearpolitics.com, also down one point on a week ago.
Elsewhere, the Gallup poll of registered voters shows Obama leading McCain throughout the United States nationwide by eight points; down from 10 points a week ago.
The Democrat's lead over McCain in this poll of 2,796 registered voters taken between October 15th and 17th is now just four points - and the poll itself has a 2 per cent margin of error either way.
Meanwhile, 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is leading by a huge margin of 30 points in his election to retain his Senate seat against the Republican Jeff Beatty.
And Senator Elizabeth Dole, the wife of the Republican 1996 contender for the White House, Bob Dole, is now trailing her Democratic opponent by a 3.3 per cent average in the polls taken so far in North Carolina.
In Minnesota, Obama enjoys an 11 per cent lead in the latest poll conducted by the Star Tribune Minnesota - down from 18 points two weeks ago - based on voters' belief that he would do a better job on the economy.
The poll, conducted on Thursday and Friday, found that Obama is supported by 52 per cent of likely voters, while 41 per cent back McCain. The two had tied in the polls there after the Republican National Convention in St Paul in September.
