McCain gains ground in three key states

Washington: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama got no "Berlin Bounce" in the Buckeye State. Or in the Sunshine State. Or in the Keystone State, according to the latest polling in the election swing states of Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.

In fact, in the newest surveys by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, Obama leads Republican John McCain in all three states, but McCain has climbed into a virtual tie in Ohio and Florida and nearly halved the presumptive Democratic nominee's lead in Pennsylvania, despite the glowing accounts of Obama's recent trip abroad.

"Senator McCain closed the gap at a time when Senator Obama was making those headlines," Clay Richards, assistant director at the Connecticut-based polling institute, said. "It appears the trip did not help Obama," added Peter Brown, a longtime political analyst and fellow assistant director at Quinnipiac.

The poll, conducted during and after Obama's trip to the Mideast and Europe, found that in both Ohio and Florida, 46 per cent of likely voters supported Obama, compared with 44 per cent for McCain. In Pennsylvania, Obama led McCain, 49 per cent to 42 per cent, down from a 12-point lead in June. McCain's gains came mostly from whites, women and working class voters, two groups Obama had trouble winning during the primaries.

Brown suggested the shrinkage in Obama's lead - six percentage points in Ohio, five in Pennsylvania and two in Florida - was largely due to voters' growing concern over the economy.