Gallup: Obama 50, McCain 42

PRINCETON, N.J., Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain by 8 percent in the Gallup Poll Daily tracking, the pollster said Saturday.

The survey of registered voters, conducted from Oct. 1-3, found 50 percent supported Obama and 42 percent preferred McCain, Gallup said on its Web site. Obama has held a statistically significant lead over McCain for eight straight days -- one short of his nine-day streak around the time of the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.

"Voter preferences appear somewhat stable at the moment, as Obama has held similar advantages over McCain in each of the last three individual nights' polling," said Gallup's Jeff Jones. "That includes Friday polling, the first interviews conducted following Thursday's widely viewed vice presidential debate, the passage of the economic rescue bill supported by both Obama and McCain, and Friday's bleak jobs report."

The Gallup Poll Daily tracking survey was based landline and cell phone interviews with 2,703 registered voters. The margin of error is 2 percent.