Special Report: U.S. presidential election 2008

Profiles: U.S. 2008 presidential primaries, caucuses forerunners

Calender: U.S. 2008 presidential primary, caucus 

Backgrounder: Key players in 2008 U.S. presidential race

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) talks to passers-by after a stop at a Dunkin Donuts in Concord, New Hampshire Jan. 8, 2008, the day of the New Hampshire Primary.  (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton holds a commanding lead over Barack Obama in California as the Democratic presidential contest heads toward the Feb. 5 primary, a new statewide poll showed Monday.

    Meanwhile, Arizona Senator John McCain had a smaller edge among Republican candidates, according to the Los Angeles Times/CNN/Politico poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation.

    The poll, published on The Los Angeles Times website, showed Clinton led Obama 47 percent to 31 percent among voters judged likely to cast ballots in California, while former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, was a distant third with 10 percent.

    People planning to vote in the Democratic primary in California embraced the notion of "change" as more crucial than "experience" in deciding which candidate they will support, the poll said.

    Obama led among voters who said "change" was their top priority, while Clinton, who has touted her experience, dominated among those who favored experience but remained the choice of almost one-third of voters who said change was imperative.

    By wide margins, Democratic primary voters also said Clinton would be the candidate best equipped to battle the Republicans in the fall.

    The Republican race is far more uncertain. Among likely voters, McCain was ahead with 20 percent, Mitt Romney was at 16 percent, Rudolph W. Giuliani at 14 percent and Mike Huckabee at 13 percent. All four were within the poll's margin of sampling error.

Republican presidential candidate U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) greets supporters at his New Hampshire primary night rally in Nashua Jan. 8, 2008. McCain capped a stunning comeback from the political scrap heap on Tuesday, beating Mitt Romney in New Hampshire to give new life to his once struggling U.S. Republican presidential campaign. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    Overall, Republicans judged McCain to be the party's candidate best positioned to defeat the eventual Democratic nominee, and, by a broad margin, listed him as the candidate most possessing honesty and integrity, according to the poll.

    The poll provided the first public glimpse of the race in the nation's largest state since the initial round of contests in Iowa and New Hampshire began to narrow the field.

    The survey, supervised by Times Poll director Susan Pinkus, interviewed 1,054 registered voters between Jan. 11-13, including 384 likely to vote in the Democratic primary and 255 Republican likely voters. The margin of sampling error was 5 points among people likely to vote in the Democratic primary and 6 points among Republican likely voters.

Voters sway as U.S. presidential race going on

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Early contests of the U.S. presidential race have swayed public opinion nationwide, with John McCain now leading the Republican field and Barack Obama erasing Hillary Clinton's advantage among Democrats, a new poll found.

    Among the new findings of the Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday, the early nomination contests in both parties have captured the public's attention.  Full story