US News

HILL, RUDY POLL FAULT

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa – Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani have seen their once-formidable leads over top opponents sliced in a new national poll – she has lost 11 points in the last month, while Giuliani has plummeted by 9 points over the same period.

Clinton’s support has dropped to 39 percent from 50 percent, while rival Sen. Barack Obama is up to 24 percent from 22 percent in the new USA Today-Gallup Poll.

Upstart Republican Mike Huckabee has surged to 16 percent nationally after having only 6 percent support a month ago, while Giuliani has dropped to 25 percent from 34 percent over the same period.

Several of Giuliani’s GOP opponents have also lost support over the past month, while Huckabee has risen to second place behind ex-mayor.

John McCain has slipped to 15 percent from 18 percent a month ago. He’s now tied with Fred Thompson, who has dropped to 15 percent from 17 percent last month, while Mitt Romney has fallen to 12 percent from 14 percent a month ago.

On the Democratic side, John Edwards stayed at 15 percent, unchanged from last month.

Meanwhile, in a bare-knuckles effort to keep Iowa from slipping through her fingers with a month to go before the critical caucuses, Clinton yesterday ripped Obama as an opportunist who ducks difficult votes, delivering an attack on his character before a small-town audience of elderly Iowans.

The offensive came just a day after Clinton challenged Obama’s “courage” and “convictions” in an attack before a group of reporters. That was Sunday, when Obama pulled ahead in Iowa for the first time, according to a Des Moines Register poll.

Clinton’s strategy, revealed during a two-day swing with a national press entourage, is to sledgehammer Obama’s sunny and optimistic reputation.

Speaking to a crowd of retirees, Clinton brought up a series of votes in which Obama voted “present” – rather than “yea” or “nay” – while serving in the Illinois Senate, casting it as political cowardice.

“A president can’t vote ‘present.’ A president can’t pick and choose which challenges he or she will face,” she said. “Instead of looking for political cover or taking a pass, we need a president who will take a stand,” she said to applause.

“How did running for president become a qualification for being president?” Clinton asked mockingly.

Clinton also brought up Obama’s failure to vote in the Senate on a resolution on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard – an issue on which Obama and John Edwards slammed her for backing a bill that could set up war.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton responded, “The truth is, Barack Obama doesn’t need lectures in political courage from someone who followed George Bush to war in Iraq, gave him the benefit of the doubt on Iran, supported NAFTA and opposed ethanol until she decided to run for president.”

Arnie Arnesen, a radio talk-show host in New Hampshire, said yesterday, “For the first time, she looks scared. So, she overreacts and brings out all this silly, childish stuff like a schoolyard bully. It’s really embarrassing.”

geoff.earle@nypost.com