that the vice-presidential selection would be a major fatcor in their vote for president - much more than have said so in past elections - and those voters broke overwhelmingly in favor of Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.In another indication of how McCain's choice of Palin has hurt his image, voters said that they had much more confidence in Obama to pick qualified people to serve in his administration than they did in McCain.The new poll found that opinions of Obama and McCain have hardened considerably in the waning days of the 2008 campaign, with nine out of 10 voters saying they have settled on a candidate and a growing number of them calling it "extremely important" that their candidate win and expressing alarm about what the other candidate would do if elected.The poll highlighted Obama's success in solidifying much of the support he amassed in the final month of campaigning. He maintains a lead, with 51 percent of likely voters supporting Obama and 40 percent supporting McCain, the poll found. Just under one in 10 voters said that they could still change their minds.The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Saturday through Wednesday with 1,439 adults across the United States, including 1,308 registered voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

by Florin 06:57:12 PM 2012.12.08