Poll: McCain bests either Obama, Clinton

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain appears to be the one to beat in the November U.S. general election, no matter his opponent, a poll indicated.

About half of the registered voters surveyed indicated they preferred the Arizona Republican as the person more capable of addressing the war in Iraq, the latest Los Angeles Times-Bloomberg poll released Wednesday.

Both Democratic hopefuls -- Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York -- have made the war a focal point of their campaigns. Poll respondents gave McCain higher marks than either of the two Democratic senators on issues of experience, fighting terrorism and dealing with Iraq.

In head-to-head contests, the poll found McCain holding a 46 percent-to-40 percent edge over Clinton and a 44 percent-to-42 percent edge over Obama.

The survey of 1,246 registered voters was conducted Feb. 21-25 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

In the Democratic race, the survey showed Obama holding a 48 percent-to-42 percent advantage over Clinton among Democratic primary voters nationally, a major turnaround since his double-digit deficit in 2007.