Recently, most of the opinion polls had put Senator Hillary Clinton of New York ahead of first term Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. However, since Obama had claimed the win in Iowa, he had boosted his campaign. On the Republican side, Senator John McCain of Arizona was ahead in the New Hampshire polls.
The polls come in the wake of what happened at the Iowa caucuses. Senator Clinton came at a third. While most would consider it unexpected, the Clinton camp had lowered its expectations. Both the Republican and Democratic debates were held Saturday, January 5 on ABC.
The Sunday poll released by Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby showed dead heat in New Hampshire. Previously, Clinton was at 32% with Obama at 28%. Now, Clinton is at 31% while Obama is at 30%.
John Edwards received 20%.
The McClatchy-MSNBC poll revealed that Obama was ahead by 33% while Clinton had 31%.
In the previous month, the same poll revealed that Clinton had 30% while Obama had 27%.
While Iowa and New Hampshire are the earliest contests and usually make or break campaigns, they do not necessarily produce winners from either campaign. They do boost their chances of getting ahead in the larger state primaries.
Mike Huckabee who had won Iowa on the Republican side did not have the same support in New Hampshire.
The McClatchy-MSNBC poll shows that Huckabee trails third in New Hampshire with 13%. John McCain takes the lead with 32% while Mitt Romney takes second with 24%.
The poll by Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby shows a closer race between McCain and Romney. McCain has 31% while Romney has 32%. Again, Mike Huckabee trailed third with only 12%.
On the Saturday Democratic debate, Clinton attacked Obama accusing him of shifting his position on key issues. However, Obama fired back and countered saying that he was consistent with his position while assisted by John Edwards.
“I didn’t hear these kind of attacks from Senator Clinton when she was ahead. Now that she’s not, we hear them,” Edwards had said during the debate in Obama’s defense.
On the Republican debates, Romney and McCain attacked each other on immigration. The rest of the Republican candidates clashed over foreign policy such as the Iraq war. Rudy Giuliani is currently focusing on the bigger states.