Poll Tracker

The demographic story behind each candidates’ strengths remains about the same. Obama has big leads among blacks and voters under 40, and a significant but more modest lead among college graduates and men, while Clinton leads by big margins among white voters, those over 60, those with a high school education or less and a small lead among women voters. The same divide that has existed throughout the campaign about “experience” and “change” shows up in this poll. Clinton wins on experience; Obama on change. As other polls have, the Newsweek survey suggests that Clinton’s “3 a.m. phone call” ad - about who Americans would want in the White House to pick up that phone in a foreign crisis – appears to have helped her somewhat.

Democrats are evenly divided about what the party should do if neither candidate arrives at the convention with enough delegates to win. Forty-three percent say number say that the candidate trailing in delegates should concede, while 42 percent say the superdelegates should choose the nominee. If it did come down to the superdelegates, 42 percent said they should choose who they believe the be the best qualified, while 38 percent said they should give the nod to the candidate that garnered the biggest popular vote.

Moving on to John McCain, in general election match-ups, he’s in a statistical tie with either Democrat. Three in 10 voters believe that, at 72, he is too old for the job.