WASHINGTON, 8:35 p.m. — A new CNN-WMUR poll released this evening shows Senator Barack Obama with a commanding 10-point lead over Senator Hillary Clinton LAW ’73 among likely Democratic primary voters two days before Granite State voters cast their ballots.

The poll, conducted Saturday and today, suggests Obama may be capitalizing on the momentum from his victory in Thursday’s Iowa caucus, in which he defeated the third-place Clinton by eight points. A similar CNN-WMUR tracking poll released yesterday showed Obama and Clinton knotted at 33 percent a piece, with former Senator John Edwards in third, at 20 percent. Today’s poll places Obama at 39 percent, Clinton at 29 percent and Edwards at 16 percent.

There was less movement on the Republican side. Arizona Senator John McCain leads the pack with 32 percent support among Republican primary voters, followed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who came in at 26 percent, the poll found. Saturday’s poll showed a similar finish for the top two spots, but the third and fourth finishers appear to have swapped places overnight. One day after trailing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, 14 percent to 11 percent, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee now leads by an identical margin.

Unaffiliated voters, who make up over 40 percent of the New Hampshire electorate, can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primaries.

The poll also found that a plurality of Democratic voters now consider Obama the most electable candidate in the field. After trailing Clinton on this question for most of the last year, he tied the New York senator in Saturday’s poll and now leads her, 42 percent to 31 percent, according to Sunday’s tally.

The poll has a margin of error of 5 percent.

-The Yale Daily News

YALE DAILY NEWS