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McCain, Clinton lead the polls
14/01/2008 08:43 - (SA)
Washington - US Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton have emerged as nationwide leaders in their respective Republican and Democratic parties, despite early setbacks in the primary election campaign, a news opinion poll released late on Sunday showed.
The survey conducted jointly by CBS News and The New York Times indicated that following his primary election win last week in New Hampshire, McCain now leads the national Republican race over former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee 33% to 18%.
McCain is now seen as the most electable in November and leads among conservatives as well as moderates with 41% of the vote, up from seven percent in December, according to the poll.
Meanwhile, support for former national front-runner Rudy Giuliani, an ex-New York mayor, has fallen by more than half in this survey - to 12%, down from 43% last month.
Race far from settled
But there are many indications this race is far from settled, with 72% of the respondents saying they could still change their minds and fewer than half, or 43%, "strongly" supporting their candidates.
On the Democratic side, Senator Clinton leads her fellow Senator Barack Obama by a double digit margin ? 42% to 27%. John Edwards is in a distant third place with 11%.
But neither of the two leading Democrats enjoys firm support: 39% of Clinton voters say their minds could change, as do 43% of Obama's.
Both top Democrats in the race are viewed as agents of change in Washington, but Clinton continues to have an advantage over Obama on perceptions of preparedness for the job of president.
Seventy-nine percent of Democratic voters say the former first lady is ready to be president while only 40% say that of Obama.
Both McCain and Clinton lost the Iowa caucuses to their main rivals on January 3 but made a comeback in New Hampshire on January 7.
The nationwide poll was conducted January 9-12 and had the margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
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