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For Barack Obama, it hasn't been this bad since it started to get better.

Battered by primary losses, criticism of his lack of experience and a controversy over incendiary and racist remarks by his pastor, the Illinois senator's national popularity is in danger of melting away.

A Reuters/Zogby national poll released Wednesday showed Mr. Obama holding a paltry three-point lead over challenger Hillary Clinton, which is within the poll's margin of error. Mr. Obama enjoyed the support of 47 per cent of voters, while Ms. Clinton claimed 44 per cent.

Only a month ago, the spread was 14 points.

This marks the first serious downturn in support for Mr. Obama since he began his rise in the polls last December, after languishing far behind Ms. Clinton in popularity throughout 2007.

Ms. Clinton is not the only beneficiary of Mr. Obama's fall from grace.

In essence, the popularity of Mr. Obama and Arizona Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has inverted over the past month.

Whereas in a potential matchup between the two, Mr. Obama led Mr. McCain 47 per cent to 40 per cent, now Mr. McCain leads Mr. Obama 46-40.

“The last couple of weeks have taken a toll on Obama and in a general election match-up, on both Democrats,” pollster John Zogby observed.

Mr. McCain holds a lead over Ms. Clinton in popularity, this month by 48 per cent to 40 per cent. Last month it was 50 to 38.

Mr. Obama's ascent to front-runner began in December, when he shared the stage in a series of rallies with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, galvanizing both black and other voters with his powerful delivery and message of hope and change.

As support, both popular and financial, flowed toward him and away from her, Mr. Obama racked up a string of impressive victories that has left Ms. Clinton trailing badly in both the delegate count and the popular vote.

But in recent weeks, Mr. Obama has discovered that no one gets a free ride to a presidential nomination. Press scrutiny has increased, and some of the criticisms of his fitness to govern have started to hit home.

By far the greatest damage, however, has come from revelations that Mr. Obama's mentor and pastor, Jeremiah Wright had, in some of his sermons, espoused incendiary sentiments, accusing the government of everything from deserving the attacks of Sept. 11 to unleashing the AIDS virus on the black community.

Mr. Obama gave a masterful response, Tuesday, in a speech on race relations in America that many commentators ranked as one of the finest political addresses in modern American history.

Yet it is unknown whether this controversy will fade or fester, for many commentators and critics remain unconvinced by Mr. Obama's apologia for Mr. Wright.

What if it were learned, Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson asked Wednesday, that a Republican presidential candidate had, for many years, attended an extremist fundamentalist church?

“What if the church's pastor attacked the U.S. government as illegitimate and accepted the stoning of homosexuals and recalcitrant children as appropriate legal penalties?” he asked.

“Surely we would conclude, at the very least, that the candidate attending this church lacked judgment and that his donations were subsidizing hatred. And we would be right.”

Whether that argument becomes entrenched in the public mind could determine Mr. Obama's political future.

Despite his travails, Mr. Obama remains emphatically the front-runner in this campaign.

“Barack Obama has already won the Democratic nomination. It's over,” declared Dick Morris, a pundit who strategized in the Clinton White House. Mr. Obama's lead in delegates cannot be overcome, he observed, and the superdelegates would not strip the leading candidate of his nomination “unless Obama is in jail.”

Mr. Obama has also received good news from Florida and Michigan. Both states have been stripped of their delegates to the Democratic National Convention, for holding their primaries ahead of the deadline laid down by the Democratic National Committee.

Democratic strategists are trying to figure out how to hold re-votes. If they succeed, this would be splendid news for Ms. Clinton, who would be expected to do well in both states, increasing the plausibility of her argument to superdelegates that she is the more electable candidate.

At this point, however, there appears little hope for a do-over in Florida. Michigan Democrats have concocted plans for a new primary, to be held June 3, that they believe would be both legal and manageable.

But Mr. Obama's advisers, while not vetoing the proposal, have raised questions about possible legal challenges, prompting Ms. Clinton to fly to Detroit, Wednesday, where she demanded Mr. Obama give his support to the new vote.

“Senator Obama speaks passionately on the campaign trail about empowering the American people today,” Ms. Clinton told supporters at a rally.

“I am challenging him to match those words with actions to make sure that the people of Michigan and Florida have a vote in this election.”

Even here, Mr. Obama must be careful. His candidacy is, after all, about bringing people into the Democratic Party.

If it becomes clear that his campaign actively colluded to prevent Michigan and Florida Democrats from casting a vote that counts, then Democrats everywhere might decide not to forgive him, eclipsing even these March stumbles.