PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AFP) - Hillary Clinton has checked Democratic foe Barack Obama's Pennsylvania surge according to a new poll Tuesday, which was conducted amid a furor over his comments about "bitter" working class voters.

But the Quinnipiac University poll, which had Clinton leading Obama 50 to 44 a week before the state's Democratic primary, did not unearth an immediate slump in the Illinois senator's support as he took volleys of attacks in the row.

Clinton's six-point lead was unchanged from that registered in a poll by Quinnipiac last week, which followed weeks in which Obama steadily cut into her her wide advantage.

"Senator Hillary Clinton is fighting off Senator Barack Obama's drive to make it a close race in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary," said Clay Richards, assistant director of the university's polling institute.

"She seems to have halted the erosion of whites, and white women in particular, from her campaign," said Richards.

The poll was conducted on April 9-13, and the row over Obama's remarks erupted on April 11. There was no noticeable difference in the polling data in the last two days of the polling period.

But Richards said a problem was looming for Democrats in Pennsylvania, adding that one in four of Clinton voters, "including a third of men, say they will vote for Republican Senator John McCain in November if Obama is the Democratic candidate."

The furor erupted after Obama said at a fundraiser in liberal California last week that some voters were embittered by years of economic decline and cast their votes on social issues instead of economic ones.

"So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," he said, according to a transcript published by Huffingtonpost.com.

The poll found sharp divides in the Democratic coalition. White voters favored Clinton 57 to 37 percent, while African Americans went for Obama 86 to 8 percent. Women backed Clinton 54 to 40 percent while men went for Obama 51 to 43.

The economy was named the single most important issue by 49 percent of Pennsylvania Democrats, followed by 27 percent who listed the Iraq war and six percent who cited healthcare.

AFP, April 15, 2008