Poll: Obama leads McCain 53-43

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain 53 percent to 43 percent, a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday indicated.

The poll suggests the Obama campaign is on an upward path, while the McCain campaign is sliding, The Washington Post reported. Obama's 53-43 edge reflects the preference of likely voters.

Survey respondents, for the first time since the major parties settled on their nominees, said they preferred Obama on tax policy and on the question of which candidate will provide strong leadership.

McCain has higher negative ratings than Obama and the poll indicated that voters now see McCain as mostly attacking Obama rather than addressing important issues.

The poll, which was conducted after the Oct. 7 debate in St. Louis, found that larger numbers of voters believe Obama would lower their taxes, the newspaper said.

Thirteen percent of those surveyed said they have not decided which candidate to support, or could still change their mind before Election Day.

The poll contacted 1,101 adults by telephone between Oct. 8 and Oct. 11, including 945 registered voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the entire sample and 3.5 points for a sample of 766 respondents identified as likely voters.