Hillary, Romney hold comfortable leads in Nevada

By Rick Moran

A new Las Vegas Review-Journal poll on the eve of Saturday's caucuses shows Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney besting their nearest rivals easily:

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney have comfortable leads in Nevada going into Saturday's presidential campaign caucuses, according to a new Review-Journal poll.

Clinton's 9-point lead over Barack Obama, 41 percent to 32 percent, maintains the lead she's held in most state polls despite Obama's intense efforts to compete here and his recent union endorsements. John Edwards trails with 14 percent of the vote.

Romney's unique investment in the state appears to be paying off, with the help of the big dive Rudy Giuliani's numbers have taken after poor showings in previous states. Romney leads John McCain by 15 points, 34 percent to 19 percent. Giuliani, who led the last Review-Journal poll, is in sixth place.

Democrats and Republicans hold presidential nominating caucuses in Nevada on Saturday, at 11 a.m. and 9 a.m. respectively.

Once again, it appears that women are giving Hillary a huge boost with voters over 50 and Hispanics also supporting her candidacy in a big way. For Romney, he polls well on all the issues which has translated into widespread, deep support for his campaign. Romney is the only GOP candidate who has paid much attention to the state and he is in the middle of a two day swing through Nevada trying to solidify his lead.

Despite the fact that Nevada will send more delegates to the GOP convention in September than South Carolina, most of the focus tomorrow will be on the Palmetto state where the most recent polls show John McCain hanging on to a slim lead over Mike Huckabee. Fred Thompson has surged into third place but is far behind the front runners.

A McCain win will set up a do or die confrontation in Florida with Rudy Giuliani who must win there or pretty much go home. Mitt Romney will also compete in Florida. making Rudy's job even harder. The latest Florida poll has McCain up slightly over Giuliani. But we're still two weeks away from that contest. And in this primary season, that has proven to be an eternity.