Poll Tracker

This survey follows a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll released earlier today that shows Clinton ahead of Obama, but within the margin of error, and that also said Democrats were coming to believe she was the stronger candidate against John McCain in November.

Highlights from the CBS News/Times poll:

• In the general election match-ups, Obama and McCain are tied at 45 percent each, with 6 percent undecided and a margin of error of 3 points. Obama had a 5 point lead earlier this month. Clinton leads McCain by the same as she did on April 3 - 48 percent to 43 percent with 5 percent undecided.

• The Times notes that more than six in 10 supporters of Barack Obama would be satisfied if Hillary Clinton wins the party’s nomination, but Clinton’s supporters are almost evenly divided about whether they would be satisfied if Obama wins. Fifty percent of Clinton backers say they would not be satisfied compared to 49 percent who would. Nearly a quarter would be very dissatisfied. The margin of error is 5 points. The Times notes that “these feelings are being gauged as the Democratic race is still going strong, and those who currently forecast personal dissatisfaction with the other candidate’s victory might soften their stance once the nomination is secured.”

• The poll also says a majority of Democrats who voted in primaries like the idea of a dream ticket. Fifty-six percent of all voters believe the Democrats will win in November whoever the candidate is, and that includes little over a quarter of Republicans.

• Democratic primary voters expect Obama to win the nomination by a 51 percent to 34 percent margin, but that’s down from 69 percent to 21 percent on April 3 which indicates what kind of month Obama has had, especially with the won’t-go-away controversy over his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Primary voters also believe that Obama has the best chance of beating McCain by 48 percent to 37 percent. Democrats registered to vote put their money on Obama by a smaller margin, 44 percent to 39 percent.

• On the “honesty and integrity” question, 39 percent consider her more honest than people in public life, 17 percent said less and 40 percent said about the same. Fifty-seven percent said Obama was more honest than most, 8 percent said less, and 28 percent said about the same.

• Obama’s favorability rating is 57 percent to 20 percent, down somewhat from early April, while Clinton’s is 56 percent to 26 percent, again, not too different from a few weeks ago. Twenty-two percent said they hadn’t heard enough about Obama to rate him either way compared to 14 percent for Clinton. When it comes to the group that has become very much a focus in the Democratic contest – blue collar workers – Clinton leads Obama 61 percent to 23 percent.

The NBC/Journal poll asked a series of questions to ferret out “major concerns” voters had about the candidates. Ranked by percentages of those who had “major concerns:”

• Forty-three percent said McCain would be too closely aligned with the Bush agenda.

• Thirty-six percent said they had a hard time figuring out where Clinton stood on trade because her positions kept shifting.

• Thirty-four percent said Obama’s “bitter” episode showed him out of touch with small town America.

• Thirty-two percent worried about Obama’s values because of his associations with Rev. Wright and William Ayers, a long-ago member of the radical “Weather Underground.”

• Thirty-one percent complained McCain changes his positions on issues like taxes and gun control just to improve his electability.

• And 31 percent question Clinton’s honesty because of episodes such as her incorrect claim she had once come under sniper fire in Bosnia.