But nearly half of the voters surveyed, and a substantial portion of the Democrats, said Obama had acted mainly because he thought it would help him politically, rather than because he had serious disagreements with his former pastor. The broader effect of the controversy on Obama's candidacy among Democratic primary voters was less clear-cut in the poll, but enough of them expressed some qualms about Obama's relationship with the former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., to suggest it could sway a relatively small but potentially important group of voters in the remaining primaries.

The survey was taken in the days leading up to the primaries on Tuesday in North Carolina and Indiana.

The relatively small number of Democrats surveyed limits the conclusions that can be drawn about its findings regarding sentiment within the party. Moreover, as a national poll, it does not necessarily reflect the sentiments of voters in either Indiana or North Carolina.

The issue of Wright continues to shadow Obama — he spent the first 18 minutes of his appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" answering questions about it — and thus could be continuing to mold the public's views of him. And questions involving racially charged episodes have historically proved difficult to poll, particularly when it comes to asking white voters about black candidates.

Still, the survey suggested that Obama had lost much or all of the once-commanding lead he had over Clinton among Democratic voters on the question of which of them would be the strongest candidate against McCain, the likely Republican nominee.

In February, 59 percent named Obama the stronger candidate, compared with 28 percent who named Clinton; in this latest survey, the two are essentially tied.

The survey of 601 registered voters was conducted from Thursday night and was completed Saturday night. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points for all voters and 6 points for voters who said they vote in Democratic primaries or caucuses. Obama held his news conference on Tuesday after Wright, in a series of public appearances, reiterated his suggestion that American policies had invited the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that the United States had created the virus that causes AIDS, and mocked the speaking style of President John F. Kennedy.

For all the concern voiced by some Democrats about the potential damage the party is suffering from this fight as it heads into the fall election, the survey found both Clinton and Obama in a strong position against McCain in a hypothetical general election match-up: Obama would defeat McCain by a margin of 51 to 40 percent among all voters, and Clinton would defeat him by a margin of 53 to 41.

The Times/CBS News survey offered evidence of the extent to which the Wright episode has grabbed the public's attention. And while it offered some findings that suggested that Obama might be moving beyond this issue, it also raised some flags of concern for him, particularly should he win his party's nomination.

While just 24 percent of voters said they thought the Reverend Wright issue would matter a lot or some to them in the fall, 44 percent said it would matter a lot or some to "most people you know." And while just 9 percent of Democrats said the issue of Wright would matter a lot to them should Obama by their party's nominee, even that small a slice of the electorate could be problematic for Obama if he wins the nomination and the contest against McCain turns out to be close.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents said that Obama was "tough enough to make the hard decisions a president has to make;" 70 percent said the same of Clinton and 71 percent of McCain.

"The thing with Wright really did bother me," Phyllis Julien, a Democrat from Brookline, Missouri, said in a follow-up interview after she participated in the poll. "I was leaning toward Obama before this because I thought he could be a change for the American people, but now I'm leaning toward Clinton. I would have to see a little more fire in his belly to vote for him and I just don't see it."

"You have to worry about how strong his convictions are when he can't stand up to someone who's wronged him," she said.

The survey found that, notwithstanding Obama's efforts to distance himself from the man who married him and baptized his children, many Americans consider Wright to have had at least some influence in his life. Forty-three percent said they thought Wright had a lot of or some influence on Obama's political views. And 58 percent said he had a lot of or some influence on Obama's spiritual beliefs.

"I feel if Senator Obama had disagreed with Rev. Wright in the first place, he would have stepped up to the plate right away and condemned Wright for his statements," said Robert Kohls, 59, of Springfield, Virginia. "So my opinion is that he agreed in some part with Wright in the beginning and only later on changed his mind for political reasons."

Kohls said he voted for Clinton in the Virginia primary, and that if Obama gets the nomination, "I would probably vote for McCain," in no small part because of the Wright episode.

A majority of respondents agreed with Obama's campaign that news media had spent too much time covering the story of Obama and his pastor.

On the gasoline tax, the survey underlined the risk Clinton is taking in embracing a position that most Americans — including a majority of her own supporters — appear to view as political pandering. More than 60 percent of voters in this poll said Clinton says what people want to hear, rather than what she believes. By contrast, just 43 percent said that about Obama and 41 percent said that about McCain.

Sixty percent of Democratic primary voters who support Clinton favored the temporary elimination of the gasoline tax, and equal number of Obama's supporters called the proposal a bad idea. But majorities of both candidates' supporters call the proposal a political tactic rather than simply the desire to relieve Americans' economic difficulties.

"Clinton is supporting the lifting of the gas tax because right now she needs more votes," said Greg Mitchell, 38, of Blanchard, Oklahoma. "But that's really only one of the few things I disagree with her on. I voted for her."

John MacDonald, 32, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, voter who supported Ron Paul in the Pennsylvania Republican primary, said: "I do believe lifting the gas tax for the summer is a good idea, but I think the only reason it was brought up by the candidates was to bolster their image in the media. If it weren't an election year I don't think they'd be doing it. Why didn't they do it last year?"