By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Producer

Posted April 16, 2008 – Tonight Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will face off in what could be their last face-to-face debate before the Dems select the party’s nominee.  But both candidates will come to the table tonight with good news from recent polls.

According to The Gallup Poll released on Tuesday, Obama is still leading in the national polls over the New York senator.  The other finding is there appears to be no indication that the recent comments made by the Illinois senator have impacted his lead.

During a fundraiser, Obama said working-class people in small towns [Pennsylvanians] were clinging to religion and guns out of bitterness about their economic plight.

The Gallup survey taken April 8-10, showed Obama leading Clinton by nine points among Democrats, 51 percent to Clinton, 52 percent.  After the controversy his lead increased to 11 points, but still within the margin of error. 

Clinton, on the other hand, is still leading Obama in Pennsylvania, according to three recent polls in the state, although the margin varies in each.   In a survey taken April 14 by Rasmussen Reports, Clinton leads Obama by 50 percent to 41 percent (with a 4 point margin of error); the American Research Group gives Clinton a 20 point lead, their survey was taken April 11 -13; and the Quinnipiac University survey taken around the same time showed Clinton leading 50 percent to 44 percent (with 2.1 margin of error).  

The Washington Post/ABC News poll agreed with The Gallup’s national survey finding  Democrats gave Obama a 10-point lead nationwide and when asked who they would like to see go up against McCain, Obama was given the nodd.

Clinton is pitching to uncommitted super delegates that she’s the more “electable candidate,” but the same Washington Post/ABC News poll found Obama beat his rival  two-to-one among Democrats when asked who was the “most electable.” 

The debate will come just hours after The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s endorsement of Obama.  The paper acknowledges both candidates are prepared, but charged campaign name calling was part of the “old style” politics that needed to be abandoned.

They wrote: “The litany of criticisms heaped on Sen. Obama by the Clinton camp, simultaneously doing the work of the Republicans, is as illustrative as anything of which one is which. These are the cynical responses of the old politics to the new.

Sen. Obama has captured much of the nation’s imagination for a reason. He offers real change, a vision of an America that can move past not only racial tensions but also the political partisanship that has so bedeviled it.”

The debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia will be broadcast live from 8 to 9:30 EDT on ABC. 

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