August 4, 2008 Gallup Daily: Obama 46%, McCain 43% Matches average since early June
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PRINCETON, NJ -- Registered voters show a slight preference for Barack Obama (46%) over John McCain (43%) if the presidential election were held today, according to the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking results.
The three percentage point advantage for Obama matches the average since early June, when Obama clinched the number of delegates needed to head to the Democratic convention as the presumptive presidential nominee. Since then, Obama has never trailed McCain among registered voters, though McCain has tied Obama five times during this span, including Gallup Poll Daily tracking reports for last Friday and Saturday. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)
The Democratic convention is now just three weeks away, while the Republican convention will begin four weeks from today. The conventions are one of the most anticipated events of the election calendar, in part because each candidate typically receives a "bounce" in support in the polls following their official nomination as the party's presidential candidate. -- Jeff Jones
Survey Methods
For the Gallup Poll Daily tracking survey, Gallup is interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day during 2008.
The general-election results are based on combined data from August 1-3, 2008. For results based on this sample of 2,659 registered voters, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points.
Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
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John McCain 
Barack Obama
The two leading United States presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are statistically tied according to the latest Day to Day Politics Poll Average. Both the 7-day average and the 10-day average show that the difference between the two candidates is within the margin of error. Barack Obama is polling at 45.8% and John McCain is at 45.1%.

The lead for Obama has dropped by 4% in the last week, two weeks after his trip to Europe. There are about 4 weeks until the Democratic and Republican Conventions and about 9% of the public is still undecided, which is a 2% drop since last week.    

The ''Day to Day Politics Poll Average'' for the past week used the ''Gallup Tracking poll'', the ''Rasmussen Tracking poll'', the ''CNN poll'', and the ''USA Today/Gallup poll''.

The battleground states of Florida and Ohio, are also showing no statistically significant lead for either of the two candidates. However, Pennsylvania shows a statistically significant lead for Obama. These three states have been key battleground states in the past two elections with the winner of two of these three states winning the White House.  

Also, according to a new national poll, white workers give Obama the edge by 10 percent (47% for Obama, 37% for McCain), even though 1/6th of this voting group is undecided. Both parties agree that this group of voters will be a key voting bloc for victory. With 92 days left until the General Election, both parties will be campaigning heavily in the three major battleground states mentioned above and among this particular voting group.