Obama failing to dent Clinton support

NEW YORK, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama has raised prodigious amounts of money but has yet to hurt support for rival Hillary Clinton, USA Today reported.

"Nobody has gone from zero to 60 faster in American politics than Barack Obama," Mark Mellman, the pollster for Democratic nominee John Kerry in 2004, told USA Today. But "he does seem to have plateaued."

Obama, a 46-year-old U.S. senator from Illinois, has raised $79 million this year -- $20 million of it during the last three months -- but has yet to seize the lead in polling in any state holding an early primary contest, the newspaper said.

Obama continues, as he has since February, to trail Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York, by about 20 percentage points in USA Today/Gallup Polls.

Obama's strategists dismiss national polls as irrelevant and insist he will break to the front by the time the primaries begin nearly next year.