The latest Quad-City Times-Lee Enterprises poll, released Sunday, has Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama extending his lead in Iowa over Republican John McCain.

The poll found Obama leads McCain 54 percent to 39 percent, a one point gain for Obama from the Lee Enterprise poll in September. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

“I think Obama’s going to carry Iowa comfortably,” said pollster Del Ali, whose firm Research 2000 conducted the survey.

One of the surpries of the poll was that only 29 percent of voters polled said they would be less likely to vote for McCain because of his outspoken opposition to ethanol subsidies, a position many observers felt was the Republican’s achillies heal in Iowa. Only 38 percent of voters ranked the candidates’ positions on ethanol as important or very important in making their decision.