The race for the Democratic Presidential nomination is getting closer and Illinois Senator Barack Obama has pulled to within two points of the frontrunner, New York Senator Hillary Clinton. At the same time, a huge gender gap has arisen within the Democratic Party.

The latest Rasmussen Reports’ national poll shows Clinton with 32% support, Obama at 30%, and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards steady in third place with 16%. No other Democrat tops 2%. Last week,  Clinton had a five-point lead. Two weeks ago, it was Clinton by seven, and our last release in March found Clinton enjoying a double digit lead.  

Rasmussen Reports releases national polling data on the Democratic nomination process every Monday and on the Republican race each Tuesday. The current survey of 774 Likely Democratic Primary Voters was conducted April 9-12, 2007. The margin of sampling error is +/-4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

For Clinton, this week’s release shows the lowest level of support in any Rasmussen Reports poll since former Vice President Al Gore was dropped from the list of potential candidates in mid-February.  Over the past three weeks, Clinton’s support has averaged 33%, down from 36% in March. (More Below).

Obama has been heading in the other direction, gaining ground for the third straight week to reach his highest level of support so far. Edwards has been very steady, with support ranging from 15% to 17% in six of the last seven weeks.

From a demographic perspective, Clinton retains a solid lead among women voters. However, among men, it’s Obama 33%; Edwards 23%; and Clinton 22%. Clinton leads among Democrats over 40 while Obama has the edge among younger Democrats.

While Obama and Clinton are the frontrunners among Democrats, Edwards does best in general election match-ups. He leads all GOP hopefuls. Obama currently has the highest favorable ratings of any 2008 Presidential candidate from either party at 59%. Close behind are former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) at 58% and Edwards at 57%. Rasmussen Reports continuously updates favorability ratings and general election match-ups for all Democratic and Republican candidates. Also available are ratings for Members of Congress, Other Political Figures, and Journalists. Former CBS Radio Host Don Imus is viewed favorably by just 24% of Americans.

Rasmussen Reports also monitors underlying party identification trends and has found a substantial shift away from the GOP over the past six months.

Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.

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Rasmussen Reports’ Election 2006 coverage has been praised for its accuracy and reliability.  Michael Barone, Senior Writer for U.S. News & World Report and co-author of The Almanac of American Politics, mentions, “One clear lesson from the Republican victory of 2004 and the Democratic victory of 2006 is that the best place to look for polls that are spot on is RasmussenReports.com."  And University of Virginia Professor Larry Sabato states, “In election campaigns, I’ve learned to look for the Rasmussen results. In my experience, they are right on the money. There is no question Rasmussen produces some of the most accurate and reliable polls in the country today.”

Rasmussen Reports was also the nation's most accurate polling firm during the 2004 Presidential election and the only one to project both Bush and Kerry's vote total within half a percentage point of the actual outcome.

During both Election 2004 and Election 2006, RasmussenReports.com was the top-ranked public opinion research site on the web. We had twice as many visitors as our nearest competitor and nearly as many as all competitors combined.

Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.