Poll: McCain leads, Clinton-Obama tight

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The top two U.S. Democratic contenders for the presidential nomination are neck and neck, with a clear Republican favorite shown in a USA Today/Gallup poll.

A day before 24 states have primary elections, the national poll published Monday showed U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., had 45 percent support among 985 Democrats polled, just ahead of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., with 44 percent.

Of 867 Republicans polled, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., led with 42 percent support, ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 24 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 18 percent support.

Clinton's once double-digit lead diminished in the past two weeks as Obama has been advertising heavily, including TV spots in 23 states during Sunday's Super Bowl, the newspaper said.

Pollsters said there a 4-percentage-point margin of error in the Republican figures, and 3 points among the Democratic results. The poll was conducted Jan. 30-Feb. 2 with telephone calls to 2,020 adults in the United States.