A Rake’s Progress

Reason to cheer, Hillary fans! This just in via Fox News:

A new national poll shows Barack Obama’s once-healthy lead shrinking to a hair’s width, suggesting his defensive performance at the Wednesday debate in Philadelphia may have hurt him.

The fresh numbers come as Hillary Clinton calls on Obama to quit whining about his supposed unfair treatment at the debate. Her campaign has already claimed Obama is just trying to cover up an “awful performance” by saying he was hammered with petty political questions.

The Gallup daily tracking poll, taken from Tuesday to Thursday, indicates viewers may have had similar assessments.

The poll showed Obama with just a 3-point national advantage over Clinton, 47 to 44 percent. A few days ago, Obama had an 11-point lead in the same poll.

The new poll surveyed 1,231 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, and had a margin of error of 3 points.

The latest LA Times/Bloomberg poll shows Hillary has maintained her lead nationally among Democratic voters. According to the poll released on January 23, Hillary leads Obama 42% to 33%.

As the competition has narrowed to essentially a two candidate race, Obama has picked up support from other nominees, while Hillary’s support has remained virtually unchanged during the past several months. Slightly more Edwards supporters said they would support Hillary over Obama if Edwards dropped out.

For complete poll details, including statistical charts, please select the following PDF link: LATimes/Bloomberg Poll 012308

 From Boston.com –

John McCain has moved ahead of Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton has widened her lead over Barack Obama, according to a new poll of New Hampshire voters.

The 7News/Suffolk University survey released today says McCain leads among likely Republican voters with 31 percent, ahead of Romney with 25 percent and Rudy Giuliani with 14 percent. Among Democratic voters, Clinton leads 36 percent to 22 percent over Obama, with John Edwards in third with 14 percent.

The poll was conducted Thursday through Monday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.65 percentage points. Other recent polls in New Hampshire have shown closer races on both sides before the Jan. 8 primary.

In another poll, this one from CNN/WMUR (aka WGOP), Hillary Clinton has the support of 34 percent of likely Democratic voters. Barack Obama has 30 percent, trailed by John Edwards (17%), Bill Richardson (5%), Joe Biden (3%), Dennis Kucinich (2%) or some other candidate (1%).

A CNN/WMUR poll released today now shows Hillary with a 12% lead over her nearest rival, Barack Obama.

According to a Reuters story about the poll -

Last week, a similar poll had shown the two candidates in a statistical dead heat. The latest poll of 469 likely voters was conducted between Thursday and Monday and had a margin of error of 5 percentage points.

I am only speculating here since the poll did not address this question, but Hillary’s surge back into the lead comes after a week in which former New Hampshire campaign co-chair, Bill Shaheen, raised the issue of Obama’s cocaine and marijuana history. Although Shaheen had to resign, it was one of the first instances in which a Clinton surrogate openly attacked Obama.

Evidently, New Hampshire voters became concerned about the electability of the Illinois Senator.

A CNN/WMUR poll released today shows that Hillary has dropped a third of her lead over Barack Obama. Once ahead by 23%, her lead over Obama is now 14%.

According to CNN –

When asked who they would support if the primary were held today, 36 percent of likely Democratic primary voters backed Clinton, 22 percent supported Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and 13 percent favored former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

In September, when CNN last polled in New Hampshire, Clinton was at 43 percent, with Obama at 20 percent and Edwards at 12 percent.

Bill Richardson had an impressive increase in the survey to 12%.

The survey suggests that the main reason for Hillary’s poor showing is the increasing number of voters who are starting to doubt her integrity and character.

Click here for the CNN story.