Senator Obama maintains a significant but far from overwhelming lead over Senator McCain with less than four months to go before Election Day, according to three new national polls released yesterday. The presumptive Democratic nominee held a 9-point advantage, 50% to 41%, in a Quinnipiac University poll, while a survey by CBS News and the New York Times put his lead at 6 points, 45% to 39%. An ABC News/Washington Post poll showed him up 8 points, 50% to 42%. In all three cases, Mr. Obama’s edge exceeded the margin of error. Opinion polls have fluctuated in the month since the general election campaign began in earnest, but Mr. Obama has held a lead in almost all of them. The margin was as high as 15 points in one poll late last month, while surveys last week suggested the race was a virtual dead heat.

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Senator Obama, in a new television ad, says the possibility that nuclear weapons will fall into the hands of terrorists is “the single most important national security threat that we face.” The 30-second spot focuses on Mr. Obama’s work to pass Senate legislation to curb nuclear proliferation. He touts the bipartisan nature of the bill, saying he reached out to a Republican of Indiana, Senator Lugar, as a co-sponsor. The ad will run in 18 potential swing states, including several that have voted reliably Republican in recent elections. The ad was released in conjunction with a major foreign policy speech the candidate delivered yesterday and ahead of a planned trip to Europe and the Middle East. Mr. Lugar said yesterday that the ad was “accurate,” NBC News reported.

OBAMA DEFENDS AGAINST ACCUSATIONS OF FLIP-FLOPPING

Senator Obama defended himself yesterday against charges that he has changed positions on a number of issues in a rapid move to the political center following his victory in the drawn-out Democratic primary. Republicans have accused Mr. Obama of shifting his stance on gun control following a major Supreme Court decision; on warrantless wiretapping, and on campaign finance reform, when he announced he would opt out of the public system after saying last year he would participate. In an interview yesterday on PBS, the senator of Illinois said the charges were exaggerated. “I do think that this notion that somehow we’ve had wild shifts in my positions is simply inaccurate,” he said. He added that his Republican rival, Senator McCain, had been the greater flip-flopper, pointing to shifts on the Bush tax cuts, offshore oil drilling, and immigration. “I think is a pretty hard case to make that somehow I’ve been shifting substantially relative to John McCain,” Mr. Obama said.

LEFT-WING GROUP ASSAILS LIEBERMAN FOR HAGEE SPEECH

A left-wing political group is urging its supporters to pressure Senator Lieberman of Connecticut to cancel a speech he is scheduled to give at a conference organized by Pastor John Hagee, who had to rescind his endorsement of Senator McCain due to past derogatory statements toward Catholics and other religious groups. Mr. Lieberman is slated to give the keynote address at a rally sponsored by “Christians United for Israel,” organized by Pastor Hagee. “One man is still standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Pastor who preaches Hitler was only doing God’s bidding … none other then Senator Joe Lieberman,” reads an e-mail message from the advocacy group, Democracy for America, which has taken issue in the past with Mr. Lieberman’s support for the Iraq war.

MCCAIN DRAWS IRE FOR OPPOSITION TO GAY ADOPTION

Advocates for gay and lesbian parents are denouncing Senator McCain, an adoptive father himself, for opposing adoptions by gays, which prompted his presidential campaign to clarify yesterday that he does not seek a federal ban on the practice. Only one state, Florida, outlaws adoptions by gays, which have become commonplace in much of the nation. The Republican nominee-in-waiting was asked for his views on the subject in an interview published Sunday in The New York Times. “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption,” Mr. McCain replied. Mr. McCain then remarked that he and his wife, Cindy, were proud to be adoptive parents of a daughter born in Bangladesh, and he encouraged others to adopt. Asked if those adopting should be a “traditional couple,” McCain answered, “Yes.” The responses were condemned by gay and lesbian groups. “He’s completely out of touch,” the public policy director for the Family Equality Council, Kara Suffredini, said. “There’s no reason, except for the sake of red meat for his base, to throw up screens in the way of children in foster care getting homes.”