Americans are sharply divided by race heading into the first election in which a black man will be a major-party presidential nominee. Blacks and whites hold vastly different views of Sen. Barack Obama, the state of race relations and how black Americans are treated by society, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The poll, conducted against the backdrop of a campaign in which race has been a constant if not always overt issue, suggested that Obama's candidacy, while generating high levels of enthusiasm among blacks, is not seen by them as evidence of significant improvement in race relations.

After years of growing political polarization, much of the divide in American politics is partisan. But Americans' perceptions of the fall presidential election between Obama and Sen. John McCain also underlined the racial discord that the poll found. Over 80 percent of black voters had a favorable opinion of Obama; about 30 percent of white voters had a favorable opinion of him.

Nearly 60 percent of black respondents said that race relations are generally bad, compared with 34 percent of whites. Four in 10 blacks say that there has been no progress in recent years in eliminating racial discrimination; fewer than 2 in 10 whites say the same thing.

The survey suggests that even as the nation crosses a racial threshold when it comes to politics -- Obama, a Democrat, is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas -- many of the racial patterns in society remain unchanged in recent years.

Lives unchanged

Indeed, the poll showed markedly little change in the racial components of people's daily lives since 2000, when The New York Times examined race relations in an extensive series of articles called "How Race Is Lived in America."

Like eight years ago, few Americans have regular contact with people of other races, and few say their workplaces or neighborhoods are integrated.

When asked whether blacks or whites had a better chance of getting ahead in today's society, 64 percent of black respondents said that whites did. That figure was slightly higher even than the 57 percent of blacks who said so in a 2000 poll by The Times.

White perceptions, by contrast, are of marked improvement since 1990. This month's poll found that 55 percent of whites said race relations were good, almost double the figure for blacks.

Broad disagreement

Black and white Americans agree that America is ready to elect a black president, but disagree on almost every other question about race in the poll.

Black voters were far more likely than whites to say that Obama cares about the needs and problems of people like them and more likely to describe him as patriotic. Whites were more likely than blacks to say that Obama says what he thinks people want to hear rather than what he truly believes. And about half of black voters said race relations would get better in an Obama administration, compared with 29 percent of whites.

About 40 percent of blacks said that McCain, if elected president, would favor whites over blacks.

The survey found extensive excitement among African-Americans about the prospect of Obama's candidacy, a factor that could prove important in pushing voter turnout.

To capitalize on that energy, Obama's campaign is signaling that it intends to compete in states that usually vote Republican but have large black populations, such as North Carolina.

The poll also found that Hispanic voters have warmer feelings about Obama than they do about McCain. By significant margins, these voters believe that Obama will do a better job of dealing with immigration.