Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has bounced ahead of his Republican rival John McCain in the race for the White House, with a new poll showing that he has established a handsome double digit lead of 15 percentage point over the Arizona Senator.

This is the first Newsweek poll after Hillary Clinton withdrew from the contest and endorsed Obama. It also shows particularly high support for Obama among the young voters.

Analysts said that it is no surprise with President George Bush rock-bottom approval rating dragging McCain down.

In the previous Newsweek poll, completed in late May when Clinton was still fighting Obama hard for the Democratic nomination, the African-American Illinois Senator managed no better than a 46 per cent tie with McCain.

But as pollster Larry Hugick points out, that may have had a lot to do with all the mutual mudslinging going on between the two Democrats.

By contrast, in recent weeks Clinton has not only endorsed Obama but has made plans to campaign with him.

"They were in a pitched battle, and that's going to impact things. Now that we've gotten away from that period, this is the kind of bounce they've been talking about," said Hugick.

Another significant finding of the new poll is that only 14 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country. That matches the previous low point on this measure recorded in June 1992, when a brief recession contributed to Bill Clinton's victory over Bush's father, George H W Bush.

Overall, voters see Obama as the preferred agent of "change" by a margin of 51 percent to 27 percent. Younger voters, in particular, are more likely to see Obama that way: those 18 to 39 favour him by 66 percent to 27 percent.
The two candidates are statistically tied among older voters.