WASHINGTON (AFP) — Hillary Clinton cemented her advantage in the Democratic presidential race Wednesday, basking in a 33 point opinion poll lead over rival Barack Obama and snapping up a key trade union endorsement.
Clinton grabbed support from a majority of Democrats for the first time in the new Washington Post-ABC News poll, a day after walloping Obama with her latest three-month fundraising total of 27 million dollars.
The poll came as the Clinton braintrust perceptibly cranked up the pace of their campaign, three months before crucial first nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Fifty-three percent of Democrats polled in the survey said they would vote for Clinton if a presidential primary or caucus was being held in their state now, compared to 20 percent for Illinois Senator Obama.
The former First Lady's ratings surged 12 percent just from early September, while Obama slumped seven percent, in a period when Clinton and her ex-president husband Bill Clinton fanned out across crucial television markets.
Former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards was on 13 percent, with no other party candidate above three percent in the poll.
The poll suggested that Clinton had neutralized Obama's claim to be the true candidate of change in the race, and that Democratic voters were attracted to her leadership qualities
Sixty-one percent of those polled thought she would be the strongest leader, 57 percent said she had the best chance of any Democrat in a national election, and 50 percent said she best reflected the values of the Democratic party.
She was also rated the Democrat best able to lead on key issues of health care, the economy, Iraq and the US anti-terror campaign.
In the latest stage of her relentless daily campaign for the Democratic nomination, Clinton also accepted an endorsement from the 1.4 million strong American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
"Expanding opportunity for our children has been my life's work, and it will be the work of my Presidency," Clinton said in a statement.
Labor union endorsements are an important part of a presidential campaign, as they offer candidates political ground troops in key states, especially for get-out-the vote operations.
While Wednesday's poll offered a snapshot of Clinton's barnstorming national campaign, the race is closer in the potentially decisive state of Iowa, due to hold its fabled nominating caucus in the first week of January.
A Newsweek poll this weekend however, offered Obama hope, with the support of 28 percent of likely Iowa caucus-goers, compared to 24 percent for Clinton and 22 percent for Edwards.
For anyone but Clinton, among the top three candidates, a defeat in Iowa could prove disastrous to their hopes of a prolonged contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.
On Tuesday, Clinton unveiled a 27 million dollar third quarter fundraising period, crushing Obama's 20 million dollar take, and erasing his advantage as top dog in the race for campaign dollars.
A total of 22 million dollars from Clinton's total is eligible to be spent on the primary campaign, compared to 19 million dollars for Obama.
Clinton was also able to turn the tables on Obama by claiming a surprising total of 100,000 new donors during the period.
The Obama campaign on Monday claimed 93,000 new donors, claiming that their result debunked reports Clinton was emerging as an "inevitable" nominee, only to be outraised by the New York senator the next day.
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