The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Des Moines

Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton in Iowa by seven points among Democrats, according to a new poll, just two days of campaigning before the state opens the 2008 White House nominating race. The Des Moines Register poll of people likely to attend caucuses on Thursday, put Obama on 32 percent, with the former first lady on 25 percent, a point ahead of former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards. The poll, by the only statewide paper in Iowa, is highly respected in the state, which is notoriously difficult to survey and where voters traditionally make up their minds late. Among Republicans, the paper had former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee holding his lead on 32 percent over the ex-governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney on 26 percent. Arizona Senator John McCain, expected to make his first major stand of the 2008 race in the New Hanpshire primary on January 8, was third in the Republican field on 13 percent.