Obama may be in some trouble

Senator Barack Obama tried again on Thursday to shift his campaign away from a focus on race that had threatened to envelop his candidacy, and bring other issues to the fore, notably the Iraq war and the economy.

There were signs that Mr. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, had suffered significant political damage from the firestorm over provocative comments made by his former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. A nationwide Gallup poll showed Senator Hillary Clinton of New York taking a significant lead over Mr. Obama in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, for the first time since early February, just after the Super Tuesday primaries. Mr. Obama continues to lead Mrs. Clinton in the tally of pledged convention delegates won. ...

... It remained far from certain whether Mr. Obama’s speech on Tuesday had successfully diminished the political risk from the incendiary words of Reverend Wright, the senator’s longtime spiritual adviser and former pastor.

In interviews, party officials across the country said they hoped that race would not stay at the forefront of the nominating contest with Mrs. Clinton, though it remains a potent issue.

Gallup said that in a national survey of 1,209 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, 49 percent favored Mrs. Clinton while 42 percent favored Mr. Obama. The poll, taken from March 14 to 18, has a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage points.

Mr. Obama’s campaign has kept track of the reaction to the speech in Philadelphia to help decide whether he will need to address the subject again before the Pennsylvania primary on April 22. ... New York Times ...