Poll: Obama leads McCain by 9 points

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has a 9-point lead over Republican John McCain among registered U.S. voters, a CBS/New York Times poll indicates.

The poll found that Obama leads McCain 49 percent to 40 percent, CBS News reported Thursday.

The network said the U.S. financial crisis and the Sept. 26 presidential debate may have benefited Obama, the junior senator from Illinois.

Forty-four percent of respondents said they approve of Obama's handling of the national credit crisis, while 35 percent said they approve of they way McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, has handled the crisis.

"McCain's support appears softer than Obama's. Twenty-one percent of McCain voters say it is too soon to say for sure who they will vote for, compared to 14 percent of Obama voters," CBS said in its analysis.

The poll -- conducted Sept.27 to Sept. 30 among a random sample of 1,257 adults nationwide, including 1,113 registered voters -- has a maximum margin of error plus or minus 3 percent.