Mount Rushmore wannabes John Kerry, Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman and John Edwards. Recent nationwide polls indicate that Kerry, Dean, Gephardt and Lieberman are the four frontrunners for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, while Edwards, as he does in this photo, only looks on.
Democratic field appears to be tightening
Two recent nationwide polls show Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman neck, neck, neck and neck in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Newsweek's poll of just more than 375 registered Democrats and independents who lean toward Democrats that was taken on July 10 and 11 showed Gephardt with 14 percent, Lieberman with 13 percent, Dean with 12 percent and Kerry with 10 percent.
The poll's margin of error of plus or minus 6 percent means that "those four [candidates] are essentially tied for the lead," the Associated Press noted. The other five candidates were in the single digits.
The Newsweek poll is signficant for at least two reasons:
Lieberman, thank God, is losing ground. He was the clear frontrunner in a similar poll Newsweek conducted in January, garnering 22 percent. In that poll, John Edwards received 14 percent and Gephardt and Kerry each got 13 percent, while the rest of the candidates got single digits. (Edwards also has lost ground; in this month's Newsweek poll, he received only 6 percent, with Al Sharpton.)
Also, the Newsweek poll is the first nationwide poll I have seen in which Dean got double digits, which should make the Deanies happy. (However, celebration probably is premature because with the margin of error, he may actually have received only 6 percent.)
An ABC News/Washington Post nationwide poll of just more than 440 Democrats and independents who lean towards Democrats that was taken on July 9 and 10 showed similar results: Lieberman got 13 percent, Kerry 12 percent, Gephardt 10 percent and Dean 8 percent. (No double digits for the Deanies in this poll, although with its margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent, it's possible that he got 12.5 percent).
A similar ABC News/Washington Post poll taken in April showed Lieberman with 29 percent, confirmation that he has dropped considerably. ("Earlier national polls showed Lieberman out front of the field, at least partially because he was better known nationally as Al Gore's running mate in 2000," the AP noted.) Hallelujah.
10:21:15 PM 
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