Poll: Clinton tops Obama in S.C. and N.H.

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Video: Decision '08

Turning Point: 2008
Nov. 5: NBC's Tom Brokaw recaps the historic election of America's first black president. Produced by msnbc.com's Kevin Flynn.

Looking back at the historic race

NBC calls an Obama win

'Change has come to America'

Decision '08 Election Night video

Barack Obama victory speech

John McCain concession speech

The candidates in pictures

Reuters	Final push Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain make their final appeals to voters.
AP file	John McCain The Republican presidential candidates' life has revolved around the public need.
Punahoe Schools via AP	The life of Barack Obama The path of the president-elect, from childhood to party leader
The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman via AP	Sarah Palin The fast-track governor's rise from Alaska beauty queen to governor to John McCain’s running mate.
AP file	Joseph Biden The senator's legacy of public service and life filled with second chances.

Despite Clinton's leads in New Hampshire and South Carolina and her front-runner status nationally, Iowa's often unpredictable caucuses threaten to trip her before she can fashion an unstoppable head of steam.

Clinton draws the support of nearly half of women in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Yet in Iowa, women split 34 percent for Clinton, 27 percent for Obama and 17 percent for Edwards.

"The things he grew up with, a single mom, working hard to get where he's gotten, I just get a good feeling about him," Nola Olson, 35, teacher's aide in Adel, Iowa, said of her candidate, Obama.

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He and Edwards have more support than Clinton as a second choice in Iowa — which could be important on caucus night, when candidates with weak support are eliminated. Eighteen percent of Iowa Democrats rule out voting for her — far more than her two chief opponents and approached only by the 12 percent who shun Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

Mark Penn, Clinton's chief strategist, attributes her weaker showing in Iowa to a late start there and her husband Bill's bypassing the state in his two successful presidential campaigns. Obama pollster Cornell Belcher says Iowa is where the candidate has been most active.

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The telephone survey involved interviews conducted from Nov. 7-25 with 460 likely Democratic voters in Iowa, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.5 points. Also interviewed were 594 likely Democratic voters in New Hampshire, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 points, and 373 likely Democratic voters in South Carolina, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 6 points.

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