In head-to-head contests, the poll found, McCain leads Clinton by 6 percentage points (46 percent to 40 percent) and Obama by 2 (44 percent to 42 percent). Neither lead is commanding given that the survey of 1,246 registered voters, conducted from Thursday to Monday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
In a technical sense, McCain is tied with Obama. That said, I'm sure McCain prefers being "tied and ahead by a nonsignificant amount" as opposed to "tied and behind by an nonsignificant amount."
