WASHINGTON — John McCain and Barack Obama head into the fall campaign neck and neck, despite questions in many voters’ minds about whether McCain’s running mate is as qualified as Obama’s, according to a new Ipsos/McClatchy poll.

The national poll finds Republican McCain with the support of 46 percent of registered voters and Democrat Obama with 45 percent. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Independent candidate Ralph Nader has 2 percent, and Libertarian candidate Bob Barr 1 percent. Another 6 percent were undecided or didn’t support any of those choices.

“The race has tightened,” said Clifford Young, senior vice president of Ipsos Public Affairs, which conducted the poll Sept. 5-9.

“McCain got a very good bump from his convention and now it’s a real race.”

The poll finds that registered voters continue to wonder whether Republican Sarah Palin, a first-term Alaska governor, is as qualified to step up to the job of president as her Democratic counterpart, Joseph Biden, who’s been in the Senate for more than three decades.

A majority of voters, 60 percent, think that Biden is qualified to be president, while 31 percent think he is not.

By comparison, 48 percent of voters think Palin is qualified, while 44 percent think she is not.

“While Palin has electrified the base, her overall appeal is less than Biden’s,” Young said.

Story by Steven Thomma, McClatchy Tribune