USA TODAY/Gallup Poll: Significant drops in support for Clinton & Giuliani

"National support for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani significantly eroded over the past month," USA TODAY Washington bureau chief Susan Page writes.

Meanwhile, Republican Mike Huckabee's standing in the national poll has shot up -- to the point where he leads a group of four GOP contenders basically tied for second place behind front-runner Giuliani.

Susan adds that results of the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll underscore the volatile nature of both the Democratic and Republican nomination battles with just one month to go before the Jan. 3 Iowa presidential caucuses.

The national telephone poll was taken Friday through Sunday. There were 425 Republicans and "leaning" Republicans surveyed, and 494 Democrats and "leaning Democrats." Each number has a margin of error of +/- 5 percentage points. The results:

Republicans.

• Giuliani: 25%; vs 28% in the previous survey, taken Nov. 11-14; and 34% in a Nov. 2-4 survey. So, his support has fallen 9 percentage points in a month.
• Mike Huckabee: 16%; vs. 10% in the previous survey; and 6% before that. His support has risen 10 percentage points in a month.
• Fred Thompson: 15%; vs. 19% in the previous survey; and 17% before that.
• Sen. John McCain: 15%; vs. 13% in the previous survey; and 18% before that.
• Mitt Romney: 12%; unchanged from the previous survey; and 14% before that.
No other GOP candidate was above 4%.

Democrats.

• Clinton: 39%; vs. 48% in the previous survey; and 50% before that. Her support has fallen 11 percentage points in a month.
• Sen. Barack Obama: 24%; vs. 21% in the previous survey; and 22% before that.
• John Edwards: 15%; vs. 12% in the previous survey; and 15% before that.
No other candidate was above 4%.

To compare the USA TODAY/Gallup results with other national polls, go to Pollster.com's results for the Democrats and the Republicans.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/20 ... uppor.html