text: Poll shows Clinton lead over Dole jumps to 15 pts . CHICAGO 1996-08-27 An ABC News poll released on Tuesday showed President Bill Clinton 's lead over Republican challenger Bob Dole stretching to 15 points in advance of the Nov. 5 election . The poll , taken on Sunday and Monday as the president engaged in a whistle-stop train trip to the Democratic Convention in Chicago , put Clinton at 51 percent , Dole at 36 percent and Ross Perot of the Reform Party at 8 percent . A similar poll conducted on Saturday and Sunday had showed a nine point lead for Clinton , ahead by 47-38 percent . Dole , down by around 20 points in early August in ABC polls , had closed to within four percentage points immediately after the Republican convention in San Diego earlier in August . Other polls also showed a strong Dole bounce after San Diego but Clinton then rebuilding his lead . Tuesday 's poll involved 1,002 registered voters and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points . ABC said a parallel poll of 824 likely voters showed the president ahead by 11 points , with Clinton at 50 percent , Dole at 39 percent and Perot at 6 percent . The poll of registered voters showed a shift in favor of the Democrats in the elections for House of Representatives , with 51 percent saying that if the vote were today they would go for a Democrat and 41 percent opting for a Republican . That compared with the previous poll 's 48-43 lead for the Democrats . The poll gave Clinton a 53 percent to 39 percent lead over Dole if Perot were not in the race . The poll indicated a fall in the number of people who believed Dole would be able to fulfil his promise to cut the federal budget deficit and cut income taxes by 15 percent at the same time . It showed 23 percent believed it possible compared to 70 who believed it was n't . That compared to 26-57 in the previous poll .