A new poll from the Des Moines Register shows Clinton taking the lead with 29% followed by Edwards at 23% & Obama at 22%.

Obama’s campaign seems to have moved into the “we will show up Clinton in Iowa and use it for momentum” with the Senators campaign manager making multiple statements about the state over the last few weeks. This poll of likely Democratic voters may be a fluke or it may be a sign of things to come

The spokeman for the former speaker of the house says Newt Gingrich will not seek the presidency, report from CNN. Gingrich had previous said he would run if he could find a commitment of $30 million dollars. Apparently that did not look like it would happen.

The other night in the democrats New Hampshire debate Sen. Clinton had a great moment where she ran across a disagreement with her husband on the position of torture. That moment was sullied when reporters went back and found that Clinton was also disagreeing with her own former position.

Sen. Barack Obama’s wife Michelle made the following statement yesterday:

“Iowa will make the difference,” Mrs. Obama said. “If Barack doesn’t win Iowa, it is just a dream. If we win Iowa, then we can move to the world as it should be.”

The campaign is now trying to downplay the comment.

John Edwards has accepted public funding for his campaign, a sign that Q3 won’t be any better than the first two fundraising quarters for the Edwards camp.

The campaign is defending the decision continuing their rhetoric of money corrupting politics but it is hard to deny that this will be seen as Edwards not being able to mount an effective fundraising campaign while attacking lobbyists, corporate donors and monied interests.

Marc Ambinder points to a damning quote from Edwards campaign advisor Joe Trippi who said in 2003 while working on Dean for America:

“This campaign believes that any Democratic campaign that opted into the matching-funds system has given up on the general election.