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Washington: The prolonged personal battle between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has allowed Republican John McCain to pull even, snatching away disgruntled independent and even some Democratic swing voters.
An Associated Press-Yahoo poll released on Thursday also revealed what could be especially difficult news for Clinton, who is trailing Obama in delegates and needs to win Tuesday's critical Pennsylvania primary by a large margin to stay in the race.
The survey showed nationwide opinions of Clinton have soured slightly since late last year, while views of Obama have improved, though less impressively than McCain's results. The findings could intensify pressure from inside the Democratic Party for Clinton to leave the race unless she far outpaces Obama next week.
Small advantage
A recent poll showed her with an advantage of just six points after leading by double digits a month ago.
Obama holds what appears to be an insurmountable 1,645-1,504 lead in delegates, with just ten primary and caucus contests remaining after Pennsylvania voters divvy up the state's 158-member delegation to the national convention in late August.
According to the AP-Yahoo survey of Republican and Democratic voters, McCain is increasingly viewed as likable and no longer the underdog in a hypothetical matchup with either Clinton or Obama in November.
Possible reasons for the shift toward McCain were evident on Wednesday night as Obama and Clinton spent precious television debate minutes squabbling over their past associations or campaign miscues rather than exploring their policy differences, which are few.
At a rally in the May 6 primary state of North Carolina on Thursday, Obama lashed out, saying time was wasted on "gotcha" issues.
"Last night I think we set a new record because it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people," Obama told the North Carolina crowd.
"Forty-five minutes before we heard about health care, 45 minutes before we heard about Iraq, 45 minutes before we heard about jobs, 45 minutes before we heard about gas prices."
The Obama campaign, whose supporters were most angered by aggressive questions in the debate, sent out a fundraising appeal on Thursday titled, "Gotcha." The liberal advocacy group MoveOn said it would run an ad protesting ABC if 100,000 people signed their petition.
"The questions were tough and fair and appropriate and relevant," one of the moderators, George Stephanopoulos said.
"We wanted to focus at first on the issues that were not focused on during the last debates."
By Thursday evening, more than 16,800 comments were posted on ABC News' website, the tone overwhelmingly negative.
A prominent TV critic, Tom Shales of The Washington Post, said ABC's Charles Gibson and Stephanopoulos "turned in shoddy, despicable performances".
There was some positive feedback, with columnist David Brooks of The New York Times giving ABC News's performance an "A."
"It's one more sign of how engaged people are over this election," Stephanopoulos said.
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