and Megan Thee

The McCain campaign’s recent angry tone and sharply personal attacks on Sen. Barack Obama appear to have backfired and tarnished Sen. John McCain more than their intended target, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll has found.

After several weeks in which the McCain campaign unleashed a series of strong political attacks on Obama, trying to tie him to a former 1960s radical, among other things, the poll found that more voters see McCain as waging a negative campaign than Obama. Six in 10 voters surveyed said that McCain had spent more time attacking Obama than explaining what he would do as president; by about the same number, voters said Obama was spending more of his time explaining than attacking.

Overall, the poll found that if the election were held today, 53 percent of those determined to be probable voters said that they would vote for Obama and 39 percent said they would vote for McCain.

Other polling

As well, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll released Tuesday also found Obama has broadened his lead over McCain and strengthened his hold on key groups.

Obama leads McCain, 50 percent to 41 percent, among likely voters in the poll. In September, Obama had a 49 percent to 45 percent lead.

In the weeks between the two polls, the nation’s economy teetered toward collapse, and the poll demonstrated the shattering effect of that upheaval on the nation’s voters. Only 10 percent now say they feel the country is heading in the right direction — the lowest figure since the poll began asking the question in 1991. Eighty-four percent said the country is on the wrong track.

Nearly seven in 10 cited the economy as the most important issue for the presidential candidates to solve — the figure was four in 10 in September — and Obama was the clear beneficiary. Voters saw him as more trustworthy than McCain on the economy and better able to handle a financial crisis.

Independent voters

The Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll also found that Obama improved sharply over the past month among independent voters. McCain carried them by a 15-percentage-point margin in September; in this poll, Obama led among that group by 5 percentage points. More men moved toward Obama, too. He maintained his lead among female voters.

The findings of the polls come as the race enters its final three weeks, with the two candidates scheduled to hold their third and final debate tonight, and as separate polls in critical swing states that could decide the election giving Obama a growing edge. But wide gaps in polls have historically tended to narrow in the closing weeks of the race as the election nears. Voters who said that their opinions of Obama had changed recently were twice as likely to say that they had gotten better as to say they had gotten worse. Voters who said that their views of McCain had changed were three times more likely to say that they had gotten worse than to say they had improved.

The top reasons cited by those who said they thought less of McCain were his recent attacks and his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate. (The vast majority said that their opinions of Obama, the Democratic nominee, and McCain, the Republican nominee, had remained unchanged in recent weeks.) But in recent days, McCain and Palin have scaled back their attacks on Obama.

The New York Times poll found that Obama now is supported by majorities of men and independents, two groups that he has been fighting to win over. The poll also found, for the first time, that white voters are just about evenly divided between McCain and Obama, who is seeking to become the first black president.

McCain was viewed unfavorably by 41 percent of voters, and favorably by 36 percent. Palin’s favorability rating is now 32 percent, down 8 points from last month, and her unfavorable rating climbed nine percentage points to 41 percent. Obama’s favorability rating, by contrast, is now at 50 percent, the highest recorded for him thus far by the New York Times and CBS News.

McCain’s strength

There were still some strong findings for McCain. Sixty-four percent of voters polled said that McCain, 72, was well-prepared for the presidency, which has been a central theme of his campaign. Fifty-one percent said that Obama, 47, was.

The New York Times/CBS News poll is based on telephone interviews Friday to Monday with 1,070 adults throughout the United States.

The Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll interviewed 1,543 adults, including 1,446 registered voters, of them 1,030 deemed likely to vote from Friday to Monday.

The margin of sampling error for both polls was three percentage points in either direction.