Taking a look back at the hard-fought presidential campaign from the primaries through the general election, an Associated Press/Yahoo poll conducted 10 times from November 2007 through Election Day found a significant number of voters who shifted their loyalties, sometimes more than once.

Seventeen percent of those who ultimately voted for Obama said that, at least one point, they supported McCain. Eleven percent of McCain supporters said there had been a time or times when they backed to Obama. Overall, just 28 percent of those who voted for Obama and 27 percent who chose McCain had backed their candidate in all 10 polls.

Other findings:

One in five who described themselves as independents in November 2007 divided 45 percent for McCain and 42 percent for Obama.

Three-quarters of those who said in January or April that they backed Hillary Clinton voted for Obama in the end.

Barack Obama is leading John McCain 47 percent to 41 percent with 4 percent choosing neither and 6 percent undecided, in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted July 18-21. The margin of error is 3.1 percent. Obama's lead is the same as it was in this poll last month.

Obama held his lead even though voters, by a 55 percent to 35 percent margin, said he was the riskier choice for President.

John McCain has a statistically significant lead over Barack Obama ... among pet owners, according to an AP-Yahoo poll conducted June 13-23. And if you narrow it down to dog owners, McCain looks even better.

Yes, it has come to this.

McCain is favored by pet owners by a 42 percent to 37 percent margin (the margin of error is 2.3 points). Dog owners back McCain 43 percent to 34 percent.

McCain has an English springer spaniel (Sam), a mutt (Coco), two turtles (Cuff and Link), a black and white cat (Oreo), a ferret, three parakeets and he also keeps saltwater fish.

Obama has nada.

The pet industry estimates that 63 percent of American households have a pet.

As for those who don't, they favor Obama 48 percent to 34 percent.

Michelle Obama is twice as disliked as Cindy McCain says an Associated Press-Yahoo poll conducted June 13-23. The survey said 30 percent have favorable views on Obama and 35 percent see her unfavorably, while McCain's favorable-unfavorable ratio is 27 percent to 17 percent.

When the primary season ended, the big question for was: what will Hillary Clinton's loyal followers do?

The Associated Press/Yahoo poll's answer for that is a good news/bad news scenario for the Obama campaign.

On the one hand, the poll found 53 percent of Clinton supporters in April now support Obama for president - a big improvement from then, when only 40 percent of them backed Obama over John McCain.

On the other hand, almost a quarter - 23 percent - of those Clinton supporters now pick McCain over Obama. Sixteen percent are undecided, 5 percent support Ralph Nader and 3 percent said someone else.

The margin of error is +/- 2.3 percentage points. After tonight and tomorrow's joint Clinton/Obama appearances, it will be interesting to see if loyalties shift again.

Today's analysis of an Associated Press/Yahoo poll has counter-intuitive findings. While a majority of Americans are opposed to the Iraq war, and John McCain supports it, more say McCain would do a better job in handling the war than Barack Obama would, 39-33 percent.

AP reporter Jim Kuhnhenn calls it "the hate-the-war, love-the warrior strain (that) runs through the American electorate."

Among undecided voters, McCain leads Obama 25-15 percent on dealing with the war. And, he also did better among independents: 31 percent thought McCain would do a better job, 19 percent said Obama would, 12 percent said "both" but the highest number - 36 percent - said "neither."