Clinton, McCain leads shrink in New Hampshire

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain hold shrinking leads in New Hampshire three days before the state's presidential nominating contest, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Saturday.

Most of the polling in the four-day tracking survey was taken before the Iowa caucuses on Thursday, when Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee sailed to wins in the opening test of the U.S. presidential campaign.

In New Hampshire, Clinton's lead over Obama in the Democratic race shrunk slightly to four points, 32 percent to 28 percent. John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who finished second in Iowa, was in third place with 20 percent.

Among Republicans, McCain's lead over rival Mitt Romney fell by two points to 32 percent against 30 percent. Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor, gained two points to 12 percent.

"Overall the numbers have not moved that much but there was the beginning of a post-Iowa bounce for Obama and Huckabee," pollster John Zogby said. "We will see more tomorrow but I think we will clearly see them make gains."

The rolling poll of 893 likely Democratic voters and 887 likely Republican voters was taken Tuesday through Friday. The margin of error for both races was plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

New Hampshire's primary on Tuesday is the next battleground in the state-by-state process of choosing Republican and Democratic candidates for November's election to replace President George W. Bush.

The state is vital to efforts by Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, and Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, to revitalize their campaigns after disappointing showings in Iowa.