The Democratic White House nominee – Barack Obama leads his Republican rival, John McCain in the upper Midwest, say the Quinnipiac University regional polls released Thursday.

The polls show that Obama has an upper hand over McCain in the upper Midwest, the area known as the home to the nation's most concentrated collection of battleground states including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, and Florida.

Connecticut based pollster Quinnipiac conducted polls in seven major battlegrounds in the past two weeks. The polls show that Obama leads McCain in all seven. It is important to note here that Bush (Republican) won Ohio, Colorado and Florida.

In Minnesota, Obama leads McCain by 17% points – 54% to 37% in a Quinnipiac University poll, released Thursday.

In Wisconsin, Obama leads Republican John McCain by 13% points – 52% to 39% in a Quinnipiac University poll of 1,537 likely voters. The Wisconsin poll is the second in two weeks to show Obama with a 13-point lead over McCain.

In Michigan, Obama leads McCain by 6% points – 48 percent to 42 percent.

According to Quinnipiac University regional polls, Obama leads McCain by 17% points in Minnesota; by 13% points in Wisconsin; by 12% points in Pennsylvania; by 6% points in Michigan; by 6% points in Ohio; by 5% points in Colorado; and by 4% points in Florida.  

"Obama is on a roll," Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown said. “If these numbers were to hold, it would be very difficult to see how Senator Obama doesn’t win the presidency by a comfortable margin,” said Peter Brown of Quinnipiac, although he added, “We have a long way to go to November.”