Despite strenuous efforts to slow Barack Obama’s momentum, Hillary Clinton is expected to drop dramatically in opinion polls scheduled to be released today on the eve of the New Hampshire primary.
Sources said the polls will show Obama with a comfortable lead, in large part because of his popularity among independents, who make up 44 percent of the electorate, and among young voters.
A poll that will be released by Zogby International and Reuters will show Clinton could lose by an even wider margin than in Iowa, where she ended up in third place with 29 percent of the vote compared with Obama’s 38 percent.
“Obama is moving up, Clinton is moving down,” said John Zogby. “This means there is real potential for a bigger Obama victory than in Iowa, and if that is the case then there is a significant burden on Senator Clinton to regroup and figure out where she goes from here.”
The polls would confirm the findings of a two-day Rasmussen poll released late Sunday that gave Obama a 12-pointlead.
The Clinton camp, although revved up over her strong debate performance Saturday, appeared Sunday to be preparing for the possibility of a second loss.
Clinton operatives downplayed the importance of Tuesday’s primary and tried to lower expectations about how well she would fare in the balloting.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is among the elected officials campaigning here on Clinton’s behalf, said the campaign was concentrating on states beyond New Hampshire. “What we’ve been focused on since the beginning is a national strategy, and that is where we expect to prevail,” Villaraigosa said.
Clinton was greeted by a massive turnout at a rally in a Nashua high school Sunday. About 3,500 people packed the school to hear Clinton, who has retrofitted her campaign strategy in an effort to wipe the sheen off Obama, though she did not mention him by name.
Obama’s campaign rallies also have drawn thousands of residents, who respond enthusiastically to his message of hope and change. Nearly 1,000 jammed a Manchester theater early Sunday morning, with some drawing comparisons to John F. Kennedy.
Clinton took aim at Obama’s message Sunday, saying change can be accomplished “if we nominate and elect a doer and not a talker and we separate rhetoric from reality.”
Clinton then assailed his voting record, again without mentioning his name, saying he approved Iraq war funding despite being opposed to the Iraq war and backed the Patriot Act, which allows for domestic eavesdropping.
