Columbus, Ohio — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin may be getting the headlines but the economy continues to be the top issue for Ohio voters in picking a candidate for president.

That's one explanation for the results of a Quinnipiac University poll that showed Democrat Sen. Barack Obama leading Republican Sen. John McCain among Ohio likely voters, 49 percent to 44 percent.

That compares to a 44 percent to 43 percent lead for Obama in an Aug. 26 Quinnipiac poll, which came before the Republican convention.

"Because of the pervasive sense of economic pessimism in Ohio, it may well be that Ohioans are less interested in the vice presidency than they are in the economy," Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said on Thursday, Sept. 11.

Obama has been focusing on the economy and on tying McCain to President Bush's policies, and in Ohio the economy trumps every other issue by a wide margin.

In the poll, 52 percent rated the economy as the most important issue in their vote for president. Health care, at 11 percent, and the war in Iraq, at 10 percent, trailed far behind in second and third places.

Palin did provide McCain with a bigger boost than Joe Biden gave Obama, the poll found. Twenty-six percent said McCain's choice of Palin as his running mate makes it more likely that they will vote for McCain, while more than the 18 percent said they were more likely to vote for Obama because of Biden. verwhelming support among black voters boosted Obama. They favored the Democrat, 95 percent to 3 percent, while white voters favored McCain, 50 percent to 43 percent.

The Quinnipiac results were the best showing for Obama in three recent Ohio polls.

A Fox News/Rasmussen poll taken on Sept. 7 showed McCain ahead, 51 percent to 44 percent. A CNN/Time poll, taken Aug. 31-Sept. 2, had Obama in the lead, 47 percent to 45 percent, a virtual tie.

The average of the three polls was a 46.7 percent to 46.7 percent tie, according to the Web site RealClearPolitics.

Source: Quinnipiac University Poll