Iowa poll says Edwards is losing ground

Former N.C. Sen. John Edwards, who has tried to make Iowa his springboard to the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, suffered a sharp setback Monday when a new statewide poll showed him slipping to a distant third place nine weeks before the state's influential caucuses.

Edwards had support from 20 percent of respondents in the latest University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll -- down from 26 percent in August and 34 percent in March.

The poll showed Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., in a statistical dead heat for first place among prospective participants in the Jan. 3 Democratic caucuses.

Edwards' supporters could take heart from a poll indication that more of his supporters might actually go to the caucuses, a crucial factor in delegate selection.

In the survey, Clinton had the support of 29 percent of respondents, and Obama had 27 percent.

The survey had a margin of sampling error of 5.5 percentage points.

Edwards on Monday cast Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and her ties to lobbyists as part of a corrupt Washington system that voters should reject in the presidential election, The Associated Press reported.

Edwards railed against the "bankruptcy of our political leadership," an approach that his campaign said would be a major thrust of his efforts in the two months before the first nomination voting, the AP said.

GOP STANDINGS: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's growing support among Iowa evangelical Christian voters has made him a rival for second place with former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, according to the Hawkeye Poll. It showed Huckabee's support had mushroomed from less than 2 percent in August to 13 percent in the latest survey -- a statistical dead heat with Giuliani.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was first with 36 percent of respondents.

GIULIANI DRAWS FROM CANCER BATTLE: Giuliani highlighted what he described as his successful battle with prostate cancer in a campaign radio commercial touting proposed free-market health insurance.

Giuliani told radio listeners in New Hampshire that he had faced an 82 percent chance of surviving his prostate cancer when he was diagnosed and treated more than five years ago.

"Thank God I was cured of it," Giuliani said in the advertisement, titled "Chances."

The candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination claimed his chances of surviving prostate cancer in England would have been only 44 percent because of Great Britain's bureaucratic system of "socialized medicine."