Hillary Clinton Ahead in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina

Two different polls out Monday show that New York Senator Hillary Clinton is in the lead for the Iowa Democratic Caucuses. The AP-Pew poll shows that she is leading by 5% and a poll from Iowa State University has her in the lead by 7%.

The AP-Pew poll also shows that is she is leading by 19% in New Hampshire and 14% in South Carolina. They also show she is ahead on the issues that the voters say are most important to them and she is named the most electable Democrat

Focusing on Iowa, Clinton leads with 31% in the AP-Pew poll with 31%. In second place is Illinois Senator Barack Obama with 26% and in third place is former North Carolina Senator John Edwards with 19%. The poll from Iowa State University also gives Clinton 31%, but they put Edwards in second with 24% and Obama in third with 20%.

In regards to New Hampshire, the AP-Pew poll has Clinton in the lead with 38%, double that of Obama who is in second place with 19% and more than double that of Edwards who is in third place with 15%.

In South Carolina, the AP-Pew poll shows Clinton in the lead with 45%, followed by Obama in second at 31% and Edwards in third at 10%.

Looking at the levels of support that the candidates have from the different groups, AP-Pew poll, shows that Clinton has very strong levels of support from females, older voters and those in the lower income brackets of Democratic voters. Historically, the two groups who turn out in large numbers in the primaries and caucuses are the lower income and older voters. Clinton also has the lead with the women voters in each state. In New Hampshire, she gets the votes of close to half the women. The same goes for South Carolina and in Iowa, her support from women is at more than one third.

On the issues Clinton is trusted by most of the Democratic voters on the issue of Iraq. In Iowa, she has a double digit lead as the candidate who would make be best decisions on the way. It is the same in New Hampshire and is tied in South Carolina. On the issue of health care, she has twice as many saying she would be the one to best improve the medical system in all of the three states.