WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) got a boost in the polls after picking Sen. John Edwards (news - web sites) as his running mate and would beat President Bush (news - web sites) if the election was held now, according to a new Newsweek poll.
The Kerry-Edwards ticket is leading Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) by a margin of six percentage points, 51 percent to 45 percent, the poll said.
The survey of 1,001 adults, to be published in the July 19 issue of the magazine, was taken July 8-9 and has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
It was the first Newsweek poll since Kerry chose the North Carolina lawmaker as his running mate on July 6. Kerry led Bush 46 percent to 45 percent in the magazine's previous survey in mid-May.
But in a three-way race with independent candidates Ralph Nader (news - web sites) and Peter Camejo (news - web sites), Kerry-Edwards edged Bush-Cheney by a slimmer margin, just 47 percent to 44 percent. Nader-Camejo drew support from 3 percent of those polled.
The poll comes amid speculation Cheney may be hurting Bush's chances of winning re-election. Cheney has been a lighting rod for Democratic criticism because of his role in advocating for the invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) and his previous ties with energy company Halliburton, which is being probed for overcharging for its services in Iraq.
Cheney has distanced himself from any claims that he has a financial stake in Halliburton, and Bush has strongly endorsed the vice president as his running mate.
However, the Newsweek poll said that if Bush replaced Cheney with Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), the ticket would defeat Kerry-Edwards by 53 percent to 44 percent.