Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- John McCain is losing ground with older Americans, a group that consistently has high turnout at the voting booth.

Barack Obama jumped to a 46-42 percent lead among those 65 and older in the latest Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll. That's an 18 percentage-point swing since mid-August, when the poll showed McCain with a 50-36 percent advantage.

People 65 and older are among Americans most concerned about financial upheaval, according to the poll, taken Sept 19-22. Only 11 percent say they're better off than they were four years ago, compared with 24 percent of all respondents; 8 percent of the older Americans say the country is moving in the right direction, compared with 13 percent overall.

Obama also has the advantage with younger voters. The Illinois senator leads 52-41 percent among Americans between 18 and 44 years old. Those in the middle, ages 45-64, are going for McCain 47 percent to 42 percent.

While McCain gets a majority of Protestants, 51 percent to 41 percent, Obama wins Catholics 47 percent to 35 percent for McCain.

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Sarah Palin, the first woman to run on a Republican presidential ticket, is getting a little better reception from men than she is from other women.

Almost half the women surveyed, 48 percent, say the first- term Alaska governor isn't qualified to be president, compared with 45 percent of men. By 43-39 percent, more men than women say Palin is ready for the Oval Office. Fifty-two percent of men have a positive view of Palin, an opinion shared by 44 percent of women.

Voters who backed New York Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries are divided on Palin -- 36 percent have a positive view of her and 36 percent have a negative view.

``Women are not a monolithic voting bloc,'' said Susan Pinkus, the Los Angeles Times polling director.

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Some of the Republican senators facing tough reelection battles are holding off taking a firm stand on the Wall Street rescue plan.

Senators Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Norm Coleman of Minnesota declined to say how they'd vote. Dole, who is in a tight race, has been critical of the administration plan. Coleman said that ``while I share the administration's sense of urgency to act, I share the concerns'' of voters. Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon said he wants to see what the final agreement looks like.

Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican of Mississippi, indicated he's likely to support a bailout as long as he's convinced there are protections for taxpayers.

``There's an instinctive negative reaction to anything in the nature of a bailout,'' Wicker said of his constituents. ``At the same time, there is a realistic feeling that we might be on the verge of an honest-to-goodness collapse.''

John Sununu of New Hampshire also indicated backing for the deal being worked out before talks stalled over objections from Republicans in the House.

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McCain kept everyone hanging on whether he'd participate in the first presidential debate. There was no doubt among his advertising staff. In fact, several hours before the candidate announced he would debate, they declared he'd won.

One ad mistakenly went up on the Wall Street Journal's Web site, quoting the Arizona senator's campaign manager, Rick Davis, as saying, ``McCain won the debate - hands down.'' Another showed McCain's smiling face with the message, ``McCain Wins the Debate!''

The ads were pulled about 35 minutes after they first appeared.

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Diplomats at United Nations have picked up the theme of change in this year's presidential race.

``There has been a standard in the history of Soviet and now Russian-American relations of common wisdom that there is not much difference between administrations,'' Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, said in an interview. ``Now, this is not the case.''

Ambassador Ricardo Arias of Panama, a member of the UN Security Council, offered the type of carefully couched support for Obama that many diplomats privately share.

``Diplomacy is dealing with your enemies; the rest is cocktail parties,'' Arias said, referring indirectly to Obama's willingness to engage in direct talks with U.S. foes such as Iran and Syria.

Obama ``would bring a new dimension that the world has not seen out of America in a long time,'' Tanzanian Ambassador Augustine Mahiga said.

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Former President Bill Clinton could have struck a partisan blow at his Clinton Global Initiative forum in New York this week. After introducing McCain, Clinton walked away from podium with a sheath of papers in his hand. It was McCain's speech.

Clinton quickly realized his mistake and handed the text back.

``What kind of a host is that?'' McCain remarked with a laugh.

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Burglars beware. Obama lives on one of the safest blocks in Chicago, with Secret Service protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So maybe he's just forgotten to take down the sign behind his front gate warning potential intruders that his home is protected by an ADT security system.

To contact the reporters on this story: Bob Drummond in Washington at bdrummond@bloomberg.net; Joe Sobczyk in Washington at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 26, 2008 19:40 EDT