Moon Township, Pa. – Allegheny County residents give Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. Barack Obama a slight edge over his Republican opponent, U.S. Sen. John McCain, according to a poll conducted by students at Robert Morris University (RMU).

Obama leads McCain 38 percent to 36 percent, with 18 percent of the poll respondents undecided and another 8 percent saying they prefer neither of the major-party candidates. Obama’s lead is well within the poll’s margin of error of 4 to 6 percent.

Students in RMU’s Marketing Research course polled 290 county residents by phone from Oct. 8-15. Ninety-three percent of the respondents said they were registered voters; 44 percent of the total participants said they were registered Democrats, while 37 percent said they were registered Republicans. 

The students asked respondents to rate the vice presidential nominees either positively or negatively. U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, Obama’s running mate, had somewhat higher positive numbers than GOP vice-presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Forty-two percent of respondents viewed Biden positively, compared to 34 percent for Palin.

However, Biden’s average positive rating, on a scale of 1 to 5, was 2.93, only slight higher than Palin’s rating of 2.74.

Half the respondents said the economy was the biggest issue facing the United States, while only 13 percent cited the war in Iraq. Respondents also were presented with four issues/policy proposals and asked whether each was important or if they were in favor. The issues were:
• Providing health care for all: 62 percent of participants said it was very important, more than any of the other issues.
• Winning the war in Iraq: 45 percent of participants said it was very important.
• New drilling for oil in Alaska: 61 percent were in favor.
• The financial bailout plan: 46 percent were in favor.