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THE NUMBERS - DEMOCRATS

John Edwards, 24 percent

Hillary Rodham Clinton, 23 percent

Barack Obama, 22 percent

Bill Richardson, 12 percent

Joe Biden, 8 percent

THE NUMBERS - REPUBLICANS

Mitt Romney, 27 percent

Mike Huckabee, 23 percent

Fred Thompson, 14 percent

John McCain, 13 percent

Rudy Giuliani, 5 percent

Ron Paul, 5 percent

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OF INTEREST:

Days before the caucuses, the Democratic race remains a virtual three-way tie between Clinton, Obama and Edwards. Where Edwards previously had lagged slightly behind Clinton and Obama, he now appears to have pulled even with them, perhaps indicating late momentum for the former North Carolina senator and 2004 Democratic presidential running mate. Among Republicans, the poll shows Romney regaining a slight lead over Huckabee, although the difference — 4 percentage points — is within the poll's margin of error, making the race a virtual tie. In the last month, Huckabee had surged from the GOP's second tier to the front of the pack in Iowa, overtaking Romney, who long had held the lead there. But the former Arkansas governor's lead appears to have evaporated — he's fallen 8 percentage points since a poll taken Dec. 3-6. Noteworthy: One in five Iowa Democrats and one in three Iowa Republicans say they could still change their minds before the caucuses on Thursday.

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The McClatchy-MSNBC telephone survey was taken Dec. 26-28 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research. The poll of 400 Democratic and 400 Republican likely caucus-goers has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points for each party.

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