A new poll shows John McCain and Barack Obama running even among independent voters, a favorable shift among that group for McCain, but the numbers also reveal a weakness for McCain among that electorate on specific issues.

The June 12-15 Washington Post/ABC News poll of 1,125 national adults showed the two candidates in a statistical dead heat, with Obama taking a 1 percentage point lead over McCain among independents, 44-43, when asked whom they would vote for today. Obama's lead was bigger among all adults, 48-42. The margin of error for the poll was 3 percent.

The national trend has been shifting away from Republican voter affiliation and toward voters identifying themselves as Democrats in the past few years. McCain has actively been courting Democrats and independents, looking in particular at female voters who preferred Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary season.

One factor that appears to favor McCain is that independents answering the survey were more favorable to keeping troops in Iraq than survey-takers as a whole. While the survey found that overall, 55 percent of adults favored withdrawing troops even if civil disorder is not restored, only 49 percent of independents felt that way.

Also, 55 percent of independents said they trusted John McCain to handle the U.S. campaign against terrorism, whereas only 33 percent trusted Obama. To a lesser degree, independents were more likely to trust McCain than Obama with foreign affairs, favoring McCain 45-42.

However, while independents tended to lean closer to McCain on most issues than overall adults, Obama generally won their trust on other issues, including the economy, women's issues, gasoline prices, global warming, taxes, health care, energy and Supreme Court appointments.

Independents gave McCain a slim, 1 point edge when it came to whom they believed was a stronger leader, but when it came to a central theme of both campaigns -- change in Washington -- the bloc gave strong support to Obama: 64 percent of independents said they believed Obama would do more to bring needed change, whereas only 22 percent said so for McCain.

Another strength for Obama among independent voters was the split between those believed a candidate with strength and experience was more important, versus those who believed a candidate bringing a new direction and new ideas was more important. Fifty-one percent of independents favored new direction and new ideas, whereas 39 percent favored strength and experience.

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