KEY POINTS:
NEW YORK - Senator Hillary Clinton, who has spent recent months trying to handle an unexpectedly strong challenge from Senator Barack Obama, may now be consolidating her frontrunner status with a new poll showing her taking a double-digit lead in the race for the Democratic nomination.
The USA Today/Gallup poll showed Clinton with a 39 per cent lead over Obama with 26 per cent if the Democratic primary races were decided today. That represented a significant advance for Clinton, who came up one point behind Obama in the last such poll taken June 1-3.
A Los Angeles Times poll last week also gave her an 11-point edge over Obama. But it suggested that when the Democrats were lined up against the field of Republican candidates, it was Obama who came out ahead of them while she came behind.
Both polls revealed gains for former Senator Fred Thompson in the Republican field. The USA Today survey showed former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani with 28 per cent compared to 19 per cent for Thompson, who has already leapfrogged Senator John McCain.
- INDEPENDENT
