With few weeks to go for the U.S. presidential elections, Democrat Barack Obama has surged ahead by spectacular 11 percent over his Republican rival John Mccain in an opinion poll Saturday.
The Newsweek magazine poll has blamed the global financial meltdown behind this dramatic shift of electorates in the 2008 presidential race. Obama now leads McCain by double digits, 52 percent to 41 percent among registered voters.
Its a marked shift from the last poll, conducted one month ago, when the two candidates were tied at 46 percent.
Asked which pair they thought was most likely to bring about change if elected, voters chose Obama-Biden over McCain-Palin by 52 percent to 37 percent. A month ago the Democrats led by only five points, 47 percent to 42 percent.
Voters are out for change and, for now, believe that the Democratic presidential candidate has a greater likelihood of delivering it.
Obama appears to have broadened his coalition of support and made inroads among the groups that have not embraced him over during the long presidential campaign. He now leads McCain among both men (54 percent to 40 percent) and women (50 percent to 41 percent).
He is now favourite among every age group of voters-including those over 65 years of age. Supporters of Hillary Clinton, as many as a fifth of whom had at one point proclaimed support for McCain over Obama, now back the Democratic nominee 88 percent to 7 percent.
The economy is clearly driving Obama's spectacular surge. Asked which issue was most important in determining their vote, 48 percent of those surveyed said the economy.
The next highest was taxes and government and spending, which 10 percent of voters identified as their number one issue.
Only 8 percent named the Iraq war as their most important issue.