In the final poll before the first-in-the-nation Iowan Caucues on Thursday night, Barack Obama leads among Democrats and Mike Huckabee among Republicans.
The Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby tracking poll released hours before the Iowa Caucus gives Obama, a Senator from Illinois, the support of 31 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers, ahead of former Senator John Edwards from North Carolina with 27 percent and Senator Hillary Clinton from New York at 24 percent.
On the GOP side, Huckabee, a former governor from Arkansas, leads with 31 percent, widening his edge over Mitt Romney, a former governor from Massachusetts, who has 25 percent. Fred Thompson, former Senator from Tennessee, with 11 percent, has passed John McCain, a senator from Arizona, for third place. McCain is now tied with Ron Paul, a Congressman from Texas for fourth at 10 percent, according to the poll.
The tracking survey combines polling from Sunday through Wednesday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points for each party.
The Iowa Caucuses to be held here Thursday night is the first step in selecting party candidates for the U.S. presidential election. Although the state is tiny and the number of voters is low, political analysts say Iowa matters because it can make or break a candidate's chances in the other 49 states and the District of Columbia.
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