The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Washington

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has a 9 point lead over rival Democratic presidential hopeful and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, a Gallup poll indicates.

A survey taken Wednesday through Friday of 1,237 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters indicates Obama leads rival Clinton 51 percent to 42 percent.

Gallup suggests the lead is in large part due to the media focus on exchanges between Obama and the presumptive Republican nominee and Arizona Sen. John McCain in recent speeches by the candidates.

This drew media attention away from Clinton, which Gallup says implies Obama will get the Democratic nomination. It is suggested in some news accounts, Gallup says, that Obama may declare victory after Tuesday's Kentucky and Oregon primaries.

Despite the results for Obama, the same poll of 4,385 registered voters of all parties indicates Clinton has a slight advantage, 47 percent to 45 percent, when pitted against McCain while McCain edges slightly ahead of Obama by a 3 percent margin.

The survey of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters had a sampling error of 3 percentage points while the general survey quoted a 2 percent margin of error.

Another report adds: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain leads Democratic hopeful Barack Obama among rural voters in battleground states, a poll indicates.

The poll released Sunday by the Center for Rural Strategies indicates McCain leads Obama by nine points among likely voters in rural parts of 13 swing states.

Fifty percent of those surveyed said they favored McCain while 41 percent supported Obama, widely regarded as the likely Democratic nominee.

In a matchup between McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton, likely rural voters split evenly, with 46 percent support for both candidates.