so let s talk about that with cnn s senior political correspondent brianna keilar and cnn senior washington correspondent joe johns. brianna, first to you. tell us more about these polls. well, this is a poll, carol, that a lot of political observers are keenly soerveing. they ve been sort of anxious for a des moines register poll because the pollster who does this poll actually is really seen as someone who pulls out the gold standard when it comes to numbers. this is something people are really looking at. 42 points hillary clinton, 40 bernie sanders. so you see the race tightening. but what s interesting when you look at the shift here from last month, it might not be so much that people are feeling the burn as they aren t feeling hillary clinton because she has actually dipped in the polls. and you see those undecideds, 14%, that is actually a huge jump of people who are uncommitted pardon me, from last month. as you can see there. now, bill clinton on the campaign trail, he s
race tightening. here s what he said. all they re doing now, as they should be doing, is talking about the difference in their positions. that s good. that s healthy. what about the poll, surprise you? no. so he says not surprised. he thought it would have happened sooner. but i will tell you this is a real this is a tooth and nail fight that is going on in iowa, especially because hillary clinton is so far behind bernie sanders in new hampshire. but when you heard bill clinton there say, look, they re talking about the issues, they re drawing contrasts, it s interesting also in this poll, carol, we see that more democrats think this is an election where democrats in new hampshire pardon me, iowa, think this is an election about issues over leadership. that s significant because people who say they re more about the issues over leadership more likely to go for bernie sanders. people who are more about the leadership are more likely to go for hillary clinton. interesting.
there s people saying we could live with ted cruz. they both recognize their chances are better longer to be the nominee and win the general election if they win the side bar contest as their main emphasis. and so both of your points, in 2012 ted cruz ran as a tea party candidate. one of the central themes was to real against the government bailout. it does pay good. he paid the loan back. i m not sure this has a terrible amount of legs but it does speak to what you ve said which is he represents himself one way and behind closed doors to other things. this will launch two mayor conversations we ll have this morning, that about the republican debate in south carolina tonight and a huge race tightening for iowa and new hampshire and a report talking
it s the first time clinton has seen her lead in the hawkeye state challenged since the fall, when sanders was able to parlay his summer momentum into a brief iowa surge. meanwhile, sanders seems to be narrowly maintaining his edge in new hampshire, beating clinton 50% to 46% among likely primary voters. likewise, within the margin of error. in that same polling from iowa and new hampshire sanders even manages to outperform clinton in general election match-ups, beating out the republican candidates by wider margins. all of which raises a possibility that until now has been ruled out by everyone but the most fervent bernie sanders fans. hillary clinton could actually lose the first two nominating contests of 2016 to the democratic socialist from vermont. and if that were to happen, it is hard to overstate how much it would upend democratic party politics in this country. with the race tightening, clinton has stepped up her attacks on sanders policies, slamming his position on gun safe
and new hampshire sanders even manages to outperform clinton in general election match-ups, beating out the republican candidates by wider margins. all of which raises a possibility that until now has been ruled out by everyone but the most fervent bernie sanders fans. hillary clinton could actually lose the first two nominating contests of 2016 to the democratic socialist from vermont. and if that were to happen, it is hard to overstate how much it would upend democratic party politics in this country. with the race tightening, clinton has stepped up her attacks on sanders policies, slamming his position on gun safety. president obama and i and senator sanders were all in the senate at the same time. two of us voted against what the nra says was the most important piece of legislation in 20 years for the gun lobby. senator sanders voted with them and through this morning has been unwilling to join the president and me in saying that this should be repealed.