Clinton takes strong lead in crucial state

Hillary Clinton has established a clear lead over her main Democratic rivals in Nevada, one of the first states to hold a primary next year and the scene of a crucial debate last night.

The poll, carried out by CNN, which also hosted the debate, put her on 51%, far ahead of Barack Obama, on 23%, despite a shaky few weeks.

Clinton went into last night's debate in Las Vegas needing a convincing performance after coming off second best in the last one, on October 30. The hesitancy she showed that night saw her campaign lose momentum. Much of the US media, which up until that point had been writing and broadcasting for weeks that she effectively had the presidential nomination, hastily reviewed their positions.

Obama gained further ground with a rousing speech last weekend at a meeting of the Democratic candidates in Iowa.

Clinton still maintains a formidable poll lead nationally. But in Iowa, where the first true test of party opinion will come at its caucus on January 3, she is tied at the top with Obama and John Edwards.

Each of the candidates is spending almost every day campaigning in one of the key states. The importance of last night's debate to Clinton was underlined by the fact that she cleared her diary for Tuesday and Wednesday to hole up with her team to discuss what questions might come up and practise her responses.

At a rally in San Francisco on Wednesday, Obama, without naming Clinton, portrayed her as "running the same old textbook, conventional, by-the-numbers Washington campaign" and "avoiding answering tough questions, because we're afraid that our answers won't be popular".

Clinton was tripped up at the October 30 debate when she came across as reluctant to commit herself on immigration, a hot topic in the presidential race. She had been asked whether she supported a plan by the New York governor, Eliot Spitzer, to give illegal immigrants driving licences, the most common form of ID in the US. Opponents argued that this effectively legitimised illegal immigrants. Although they make an important contribution to the economy, many Americans regard illegal immigrants as a threat to their jobs.

Spitzer came to Clinton's aid on Tuesday by announcing that, in the face of public hostility to the plan, he was opposing it.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama, raised both the immigration issue and an embarrassment for Clinton at the weekend when her camp was forced to admit it had been planting questions. "When it takes two weeks and six different positions to answer one question on immigration, it's easier to understand why the Clinton campaign would rather plant their questions than answer them," Burton said.