Poll Tracker

Barack Obama leads John McCain 45 percent to 39 percent, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted July 7-14. The margin of error is 3 percent. Worth noting: 72 percent of voters said their minds were made up, while 28 percent said it was too early to say for sure. The Times/CBS poll compares to a Washington Post/ABC News Poll released earlier today that had Obama ahead 50 percent to 42 percent, also with a 3 percent margin of error. While the Post/ABC News poll emphasized Obama's strength against McCain on domestic issues, but his weakness compared to McCain as far as who voters trusted on foreign policy, The Times honed in on what its poll found about the racial divide exposed by the campaign.

The Times/CBS News survey found that nearly 60 percent of blacks believed race relations were generally bad compared to 34 percent of whites. Blacks and whites sharply divided on questions of how much progress had been made in ending racial discrimination, and how great the racial barriers were facing blacks.