Gallup poll finds little Biden impact

PRINCETON, N.J., Aug. 24 (UPI) -- The selection of Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., for the Democratic U.S. presidential ticket isn't having much immediate impact on voters, a Gallup poll indicates.

The Princeton, N.J., polling firm says its USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Saturday indicated 14 percent of registered voters said Biden's selection as the running mate of likely nominee U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., makes them more likely to vote for Obama. Combined with 7 percent who said Biden's choice would make it less likely they'd for the Democratic ticket, the net positive bump from the announcement was 7 percent, Gallup said.

That's significantly lower than the 17 percent net positive bump that 2004 Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., got when he announced Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., as his choice.

The pollsters said one reason for Biden's negligible impact on Obama's support could be his relative obscurity. More than half of the respondents had no opinions about the veteran senator, saying they either didn't know enough about him or they had never heard of him.

The poll surveyed 876 registered voters and had an error margin of 4 percentage points.