Clinton leads Obama by just one percentage point, 47% to 46%, in a Gallup poll released Tuesday. It's the fifth straight poll in which the two Democratic White House hopefuls are within one point of each other.

Gallup concludes, however, that it's negative for Obama despite the closeness of the numbers. "From a broad perspective, this situation marks a loss for Obama, who has generally been in the lead over Clinton for the last month," the pollster concluded. But Gallup also notes that Clinton hasn't been able to move into a significant lead over Obama. Read More

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The survey, released Monday, gives Clinton a fresh talking point as she works to raise campaign cash and persuade pivotal undecided superdelegates to side with her in the drawn-out Democratic primary fight.

Helped by independents, young people and senior citizens, Clinton gained ground this month in a hypothetical match with McCain, the GOP nominee-in-waiting. In the poll, she led McCain 50 percent to 41 percent, while Obama remained virtually tied with McCain, 46 percent to 44 percent. The poll had a margin of error of 3.1 percent. Read More

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THE NUMBERS:

Barack Obama, 41 percent

Hillary Rodham Clinton, 38 percent

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OF INTEREST:

The poll found 21 percent of those responding were undecided. Obama does better than Clinton against the certain Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Among Hoosiers who said they would vote in the general election, Obama beat McCain 49 percent to 41 percent. Clinton broke even with McCain, with both backed by 46 percent of those polled. And, by 49 percent to 35 percent, Democratic primary voters said Obama is the candidate best able to win in the general election.

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The WTHR-Indianapolis Star poll of 535 likely Democratic voters in the May 6 primary election and 500 Hoosiers statewide was conducted by telephone April 20-23 by Selzer & Company of Des Moines, Iowa. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points for likely Democratic primary voters and 4.4 percentage points for Hoosiers statewide.

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Support for McCain fell by two points since March, while backing for Rodham Clinton remained stable. In a separate match-up, McCain is virtually even with Illinois senator Barack Obama.

Yesterday in New Orleans, McCain discussed the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, saying, "Never again, never again, will a disaster of this nature be handled in the disgraceful way it was handled. I promise you, never again. (...) I’ve been going to places that are perhaps very cynical about government. As president of the United States, I’m not going to leave anybody behind." Read More

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In addition, 36 per cent of respondents think Democratic Illinois senator Barack Obama has launched unfair attacks, while 16 per cent feel the same way about Republican Arizona senator John McCain. More than a third of respondents believe none of the three contenders has behaved unfairly. Read More

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