The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Washington

Democrat Barack Obama has a 6-point lead over Republican John McCain in the presidential race as a growing percentage of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday.

Obama leads McCain by 47 percent to 41 percent for the November 4 election, unchanged from last month. But 55 percent believed Obama, a 46-year-old first-term Illinois senator, would be the riskier choice for president, while 35 percent said that of McCain, 71, a fourth-term Arizona senator, the poll said.

But Obama's message of change may resonate with a disgruntled electorate after eight years of a Republican-run White House. Only 13 percent of those polled believed the country was headed in the right direction. That was the lowest percentage on this question in the NBC/Journal poll's history.