THE POLL: CNN-Opinion Research Corp., national presidential race among likely voters

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 53 percent, John McCain 42 percent

OF INTEREST: Obama's 11-percentage-point lead over McCain comes when three minor party candidates are included; when Obama and McCain are matched exclusively, Obama leads 53 percent to 45 percent. Either way, Obama's lead has grown from the narrow advantage he had two weeks ago in this same poll. Forty-three percent say Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is qualified to be president if necessary, while 80 percent say so about her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden. Six in 10 think Obama will win the election.

DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 3-5 by telephone with 694 likely voters. Sampling error margin plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

MORE: http://www.cnn.com

-----

THE POLL: CBS News Poll, national presidential race among likely voters

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 48 percent, John McCain 45 percent

OF INTEREST: This poll, showing the race basically even among likely voters, finds a tighter contest than most other surveys have measured recently. Fifty-seven percent are confident Obama would make the right decisions about the economy; 53 percent say McCain would. Those numbers are about reversed over who would do the right thing on Iraq. More people have favorable than unfavorable views about Obama by 12 percentage points, but are about evenly split on McCain. Almost two-thirds say Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden could be an effective president, while 37 percent say so about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 3-5 by landline and cell telephones with 875 registered voters, sampling error margin plus or minus 3 percentage points. Poll included 616 likely voters, sampling error margin plus or minus 4 percentage points.

MORE: http://www.cbsnews.com