Democrat Barack Obama has a slim 46 to 43 percent lead over Republican John McCain in New Hampshire, the latest Granite State poll found Monday.

The survey, conducted between July 11 and 20, found New Hamsphire very much still a swing state. Just 51 percent of its voters say they have definitely made up their minds about a candidate. Margin of error in the poll is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

Poll director Andrew Smith called the electorate "very much in flux," adding “Neither Obama nor McCain can claim to have a hold on the New Hampshire electorate....both candidates have real opportunities to sway
independent voters to their sides between now and the election.”

McCain plans to campaign in Rochester, N.H. Tuesday, as he holds a lunchtime Town Hall meeting at the city's Opera House.

What people most want to hear is how he'll deal with the economy. Smith noted that in the latest poll, "concerns about the war in Iraq have been dropping as the economy worsens and as the war no longer dominates television news."

To read more about the poll: http://www.unh.edu/survey-center/news/pdf/gsp2008_summer_nhpres72108.pdf

Barack Obama "has a chance to convince skeptics in the Jewish community" he's on their side during his visit to Israel and other Middle East countries this week, Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said Monday.

But Forman also noted that there's already a lot of "solid support" for the presumptive Democratic nominee.

A CBS News poll last month found Obama enjoyed a 65 to 28 percent advantage over likely Republican nominee John McCain.

So far, Obama's showing is roughly in line with that of Democratic presidential candidates of the 1970s and 1980s. From 1972 to 1988, Democrats got between 64 and 67 percent of the vote, except in 1980, when Jimmy Carter won 45 percent, while Republican Ronald Reagan got 39 percent. Independent John Anderson also ran that fall.

But Democrats have done better in recent elections in the community. Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry all got at least 77 percent.

Republicans are battling hard this year for the Jewish vote, which can be a swing vote in some crucial states, notably Florida, Ohio and Nevada. Among McCain's backers: Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Gore's 2000 Democratic running mate and now an independent.

Forman tried to play down the Lieberman influence, noting that when he was on the ticket in 2000, some 79 percent of Jewish voters backed the Democrats--up only 1 percentage point from 1996.

But the GOP is fighting hard, noting that among those accompanying Obama on his trip is Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. The Republican Jewish Coalition has a warning about Hagel, saying he has often not been sympathetic to Israel.

Their statement: http://www.rjchq.org/news.asp?FormMode=Detail&id=1328

Barack Obama holds a small but steady lead over John McCain, as Obama continues his trip abroad.

Gallup has been tracking sentiment about the two presidential rivals daily for about the last month, and found little has changed. In the latest poll, which includes interviews were being finished, showed Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, at 45 percent, while Republican McCain had 42. Obama led by 6 at one point earlier this month. Margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

The survey could draw no conclusions about the potential impact of Obama's trip.

For complete day by day results: http://www.gallup.com/poll/108949/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Has-ThreePoint-Edge.aspx

The White House press office, which usually offers a daily dose of schedules, presidential proclamations and explanations of administration positions, Saturday offered something very different--a Reuters news service story explaining how Iraq's prime minister backed Democrat Barack Obama's troop exit strategy.

Oops.

White House reporters were sent a story explaining "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months. In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Maliki said he wanted U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible.

"U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."

ABC News reported that the story was intended for a more select White House audience, not the general press corps, but an employee hit the wrong button.

Obama's campaign has been claiming Bush is getting closer to the presumptive Democratic nominee's views. Friday, Bush and the prime minister discussed a "general time horizon" for troop reductions.

Here's the Reuters story:http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSL198009020080719

Here's the Der Spiegel story: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,566841,00.html