Poll: Obama leads Clinton nationally

PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has emerged as the Democratic front-runner, a U.S. poll said.

The Illinois senator, who has won eight straight state nominating contests, has steadily gained in the Gallup Poll Daily.

Gallup reported Tuesday that Obama has led rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in each of the last of its three tracking polls. According to Gallup's most recent poll taken Feb. 13-17, Obama leads Clinton 49 percent to 43 percent.

The poll also found that Obama has recently gained support among women, Hispanics, and self-identified Democrats, who had supported Clinton earlier in the race.

Gallup's findings are based on a comparison of Democratic voters' nomination preferences in Feb. 5-9 polling of 2,072 Democrats with those results in Feb. 13-17 polling, when 2,022 Democrats were polled.

The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.