Poll: Obama's support may be softening

NEW YORK, April 4 (UPI) -- Support for Sen. Barack Obama's bid to be the Democratic presidential nominee seems to have softened, a New York Times/CBS News poll indicated.

The survey indicates nationwide support fell as voters reported a slightly less favorable view of him now than they did after his string of primary and caucus wins in February over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., the Times reported Friday.

Obama's favorability rating among Democratic primary voters dropped 7 percentage points to 62 percent since the Times/CBS News survey in late February.

Clinton and Obama were virtually tied among Democratic voters, with 46 percent saying they favored Obama as the nominee and 43 percent supporting Clinton. In late February, the poll 54 percent of Democrats said they wanted Obama to win the nomination, compared with 38 percent for Clinton.

The poll indicated more than half of its respondents thought Obama has better chance of defeating presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

The poll interviewed 1,196 registered Republican and Democratic primary voters between March 28-April 2. The sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for all voters, 4 percentage points for Democratic primary voters and 5 percentage points for Republican primary voters.