Obama holds 10 point lead over McCain in Maryland

Senators John McCain (R) and Barack Obama (D) with Pastor Rick Warren Saturday night, two days before the poll was taken: Getty Images Photo

Poll Suggest Voters Suspicious Of Media Bias

A new Rasmussen Reports poll has Democratic nominee Barack Obama leading his Republican counterpart John McCain by a solid 10 point margin in the quest for Maryland's 10 electoral votes this November.

53 percent of voters are firm in their vote for Obama, while 41 percent say they'll definitely cast their ballots for McCain. A paltry 4 percent are undecided, while 2 percent will vote 'other.'

With those "leaning" towards one candidate or the other are counted, McCain gains an additional 2 percent -- a point each from the "undecided" and 'other' categories -- and Obama gains none, cutting his lead to 10.

The 2000 and 2004 Democratic nominees, Al Gore and John Kerry, carried the state by an average of 15 points over Republican President George W. Bush.

The survey of 500 likely voters was conducted on Monday, Aug. 18, and has a +/- 4.5 percent margin of error and a 95 percent confidence interval.

Overall, both candidates are more liked in the state. 61 percent give Obama a favorable rating, while 39 percent find him unfavorable. 56 percent find McCain favorable, while 43 percent rate him unfavorably.

On the media, a whopping 67 percent said they believe that most reporters "try to help the candidate they want to win" in their coverage. Only 22 percent said they would remain unbiased while 11 percent were not sure.

But when faced with a more specific question about the current presidential candidates, 32 percent believe most reporters will try to offer unbiased coverage of the campaign, yet many more voters think the media will try to help Obama over McCain, 45 percent to 11 percent -- a lopsided margin of 34 points.