PA POLL: Hillary 50, Obama 44. No change. "Bittergate" bombs... [View All]

Poll: Clinton keeps 6-point lead over Obama in Pa.
by BRETT LIEBERMAN, Of The Patriot-News
Tuesday April 15, 2008, 6:00 AM

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama can both find something to like in a new Quinnipiac University poll that finds she may have stopped the hemhorraging and that his own wounds may not be as severe as feared.

Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama shake hands during the Compassion Forum at Messiah College, in Grantham, Pa.Democratic Party leaders, on the other hand, may not be as overjoyed by results that show the dragged out primary fight for the Democratic presidential nomination could prove costly to the party in November.

Nearly one-in-five Obama supporters say they will vote for Republican John McCain rather than Clinton if she is the nominee, and more than a quarter of her supporters say they will vote for the Republican if Obama gets the nomination.

The survey out this morning finds that Clinton has stalled the Illinois senator's momentum that closed a double-digit gap to within six percentage points, with the Democratic presidential race in Pennsylvania exactly where it was a week ago.

Clinton maintains a 50 percent to 44 percent lead, according to the survey of 2,103 likely voters in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary a week away.

"Sen. Hillary Clinton is fighting off Sen. Barack Obama's drive to make it a close race in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, holding the six-point edge she had a week ago. She seems to have halted the erosion of whites and white women in particular from her campaign," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

But Obama can find comfort in that this latest poll that shows little indication that the controversy over his remarks about people in small town Pennsylvania may not be taking as big a toll as feared.

His comments that these people "get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations" has dominated the race, and worried his campaign aides, since Friday as the two candidates reached out to working-class voters.

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http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/04/clinton_maintains_6point_lead.html