U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is poised to win California by the biggest landslide in the history of modern elections, according to a new Field Poll.
Obama's victory would outweigh even Ronald Reagan's huge wins in his home state, thanks to a crushing margin of support from young voters, independents and Latinos, the poll showed.
Obama and his vice presidential running mate, Senator Joe Biden, now lead Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin by a whopping 55-33 percent in California, the nation's most populous state, according to the poll published by the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday.
The poll surveyed 966 likely voters on Oct. 18-28.
The poll showed that despite Republican attacks suggesting Obama is too radical and untested to be president, Obama continues to hold 61 percent favourable ratings with Californians, compared to 30 percent who view him unfavourably.
With just five days until the November 2008 election, Obama is leading McCain in every area of the state, among every age group except voters over 65, and holds leads in every demographic and income group, as well as among both men and women, according to the poll.
Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, said that Obama's huge lead underscores the Democrat's solid success in appealing to voter groups that are emerging as the fastest-growing and potentially most influential electorates in the nation.
"He really is doing very well among the new emerging voters in California, in the largest areas where the voting population is growing fastest -- the Latino vote, the youth vote and the non-partisan vote," DiCamillo said. "These are groups that will have a huge amount of influence down the road."
"This election is being held at a time when there is overwhelming agreement among Californians and Americans that the country is seriously on the wrong track," said DiCamillo. "And it's being held at a time when the incumbent administration is getting record low job-performance ratings and has gotten them for more than a year."
The latest Field Poll also underscores the potential impact of the coming election on congressional races. Asked their preferences for the U.S. House of Representatives in their district, 50 percent said they are inclined to vote for Democrats, while just 29 percent expressed a preference for Republicans in those seats, the poll showed.
DiCamillo said the latest survey dramatizes some of the historic trends that have, from the start, made a Republican presidential win a serious uphill battle.
The Field Poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points among likely voters.