Obama supporters fired up

Washington - As Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama prepares for a major trip to Europe and the Middle East, a poll released on Friday shows his supporters are much more fired up about race than those of John McCain.

The poll by the Associated Press and Yahoo News showed that 38% of Obama's supporters say the election is exciting compared with 9% of McCain's. The passion and interest shown by blocs of voters are important because they affect who will be motivated to vote.

Obama faces hurdles of his own. The poll shows lagging fervour for the Democratic candidate by supporters of his vanquished rival in the party primaries, Hillary Clinton. And there are lots of dispirited and undecided independents, who are expected to be pivotal in the November election.

Obama and Clinton fought for the Democratic nomination in a long and often bitter primary battle, in which Clinton frequently questioned whether Obama, a first-term senator, had the national security experience to serve as president.

Obama's trip is aimed at burnishing his foreign policy credentials, especially amid criticism from McCain, a long-time senator and war hero, that he is inexperienced.

War zone travels

The Democrat's campaign officials have announced stops in Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England. Obama also has pledged to travel to Iraq and Afghanistan this year, but aides have not said whether those war zones will be part of the same trip.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesperson on Friday confirmed the European leader will welcome Obama to her office in Berlin next Thursday.

On Friday, McCain was campaigning in the Midwestern swing state of Michigan. Obama did not have any public events on Friday.

In the AP-Yahoo News poll, 65% of Obama's backers say they are hopeful about the campaign, double McCain's, and the Democrat's supporters are three times likelier to express pride.

In addition, individual groups backing Obama - African-Americans, Democrats and liberals - are more enthusiastic than whites, Republicans and conservatives, who are more aligned with McCain.

Independents

Overall, 31% of those supporting Obama are Democrats who had preferred Clinton during the party's primary battle. Just 12% of former Clinton supporters say they are excited about the campaign, one-third the excitement level among Obama's longer-term backers.

Half of McCain's supporters say the race makes them frustrated, more than double Obama's backers who say so. And while 16% of those preferring Obama say they may change their candidate, 24% of McCain's say they might do the same.

Independents, who both McCain and Obama are avidly pursuing, show little enthusiasm about the race. Only 21% find the election interesting - down from 31% in November - and just 7% say it is exciting. Substantial numbers say they feel frustrated, helpless and even bored.

The AP-Yahoo News poll, conducted by Knowledge Networks, has measured the political sentiments of the same 2 000 adults since November. Friday's poll was conducted from June 13-23 among 1 759 adults and has an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

- SAPA