Obama leads McCain in Ohio

Sen. Barack Obama Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee (left) and Sen. John McCain Presumptive Republican Nominee.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – A poll released Wednesday found presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama with a six-point lead over presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in Ohio.
The poll of likely Ohio voters conducted by Quinnipiac University gives Obama 48 percent to McCain's 42 percent. Previous head-to-head match-ups conducted by Quinnipiac found either McCain leading or were too close to call.
The telephone poll, conducted June 9-16 with 1,396 voters and a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, showed that independents are about evenly split between Obama and McCain. Independents are a key target for both campaigns in the November election.
Obama's staff has recently begun exploring ways to win the election without winning Ohio, a perennial battleground state that gave President Bush the electoral votes he needed to be re-elected in 2004. Obama is looking at Georgia and Virginia - two Southern states that have traditionally been GOP strongholds - and several Western states as places where he could pick up electoral votes.
Herb Asher, an Ohio State University political science professor, said the poll should give the Obama campaign pause about overlooking Ohio.
"The message should be to his campaign that Ohio is very much winnable,'' Asher said. "The electoral map may be a little more fluid this year, but the Quinnipiac poll shows Ohio is worthwhile."
Melanie Blumberg, a professor of political science at California (Pa.) University and a Youngstown-area Democratic activist, was surprised at Obama's margin in the poll.
"It's Ted Strickland's popularity," she said. "Even though he supported Hillary Clinton, the principle is he's still a Democrat and still very popular. I think the other thing is the economy and people want change."
The Quinnipiac Poll also suggests that Obama would not be served well by choosing Clinton as his running mate. By a small margin, people say they'd be more likely to vote for Obama with Clinton on the ticket. But independents say they'd be less likely to vote for him by 10 percentage points.
Men are evenly divided between Obama and McCain, while Obama has
a 12-point edge among women.