Dean stages recovery to close gap on Kerry
Mr Dean shaved four points off Mr Kerry’s advantage in the latest three-day tracking poll by Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby, as supporters who wavered after his dismal third-place Iowa finish and screaming concession speech appeared to be returning to the fold.
Mr Kerry led Mr Dean 31% to 28% in the new poll, with John Edwards jumping three points to narrowly trail Wesley Clark for third place, 13% to 12%. Connecticut Senator. Joseph Lieberman remained static at 9%.
“There is no question that the race has tightened up,” pollster John Zogby said. “Dean stopped the bleeding in the middle of the week and he has slowly regained some of the support he had lost.”
Mr Dean’s favourable ratings crept back up this week but almost half of likely New Hampshire voters still think it is unlikely he can beat President George W Bush - a crucial issue as Democrats look ahead to November’s election.
“There are some serious doubts about whether he can beat President Bush,” Zogby said of Mr Dean, who gained five points in the new poll while Kerry gained one point and Edwards jumped three points. The other candidates stayed level.
A tracking poll combines the results of three consecutive nights of polling, then drops the first night’s results each time a new night is added. It allows pollsters to record shifts in voter sentiment as they happen.
The New Hampshire primary has seen many late momentum swings and surprise showings through history, sometimes fuelled by the state’s large bloc of independent voters, who can cast ballots in either the Democratic or Republican primary and traditionally decide late.
Thirteen per cent of likely New Hampshire voters remain undecided.
Other polls have shown Mr Kerry with a much wider lead.
Late last month Mr Dean led polls in New Hampshire by more than 20 points, but much of his lead evaporated in the week before Iowa and quickly disappeared after his loss there.
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