Obama holds 10-point lead on McCain

By Andrew Quinn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama holds a 10-point lead over Republican rival John McCain in the U.S. presidential race, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Friday.

Obama leads McCain by 51 percent to 41 percent among likely U.S. voters in the three-day tracking poll, which has a margin of error of 2.9 points. Obama had a 12-point lead on Thursday.

The numbers marked the end of a 4-day slide for McCain, who has seen Obama's lead widen in national surveys as well as polls in many of the battleground states that will decide the November 4 election.

But pollster John Zogby said the strength of Obama's support -- which has grown amid increasingly dismal economic news -- remained impressive.

"McCain stopped the bleeding a little bit but he still has a long way to go," he said.

Obama, 47, continues to win support from women and independent voters, two groups expected to play pivotal roles in this year's election.

Among independents, the Illinois senator is ahead by 56 percent to 30 percent, while women back Obama by a 20-point margin, 58 percent to 38 percent.

Obama also leads among Catholic voters by 22 points, and among Protestants who are not evangelical by 48 percent to 44 percent. Evangelical or "born-again" voters back McCain by 60 percent to 34 percent for Obama.