Romney's great morning: He crushes the field in IA and gets key endorsement in NH

The University of Iowa just released our favorite kind of poll -- one from the Iowa caucuses. The results are not particularly surprising, and confirm what we have seen elsewhere:

• Among Republicans, Mitt Romney crushes the field with 36.2%, with a three-way tie for second far far behind: Rudy Giuliani at 13.1%, Mike Huckabee at 12.8%, Fred Thompson at 11.4%. John McCain comes in fifth at 6%.
• Among Democrats, Clinton at 28.9% and Obama at 26.6% are pretty much tied for first, while Edwards is falling behind with 20%. Richardson is no longer in the double digits, at 7.2%, and Biden is rising above the last-tier (as we have seen in other polls) at 5.3%.

Before you put too much stock in this poll, however, read this warning from Pollster.com that explains why the likely voter screen of U of Iowa poll are much looser than any other polling institute, so that many people are polled here that will likely not go to the caucuses -- something which probably hurts John Edwards if anyone, since he has the most support among regular caucus goers and motivated voters.

A few quick notes. Interesting to note that Hillary's edge is coming entirely from women, among whom she gets 33%. Among men, Clinton comes in third with 22%. We see, once again, that Iowa is the state in which Clinton might stumble -- she is strong everywhere else, and will remain so unless she slips here. Obama and Edwards are definitely in a position to make that happen. Among Republicans, Romney is in an incredible position and has to keep this going. The fight is and will likely remain for second place, though it really might not matter if the three come so close to each other. Huckabee would get a huge boost out of second-place showing, and Giuliani might take a huge hit to his frontrunner status if he does not come in second.

Also noteworthy -- the Iowa Democrats are now set on January 3rd for sure. I reported this last week but there was still a chance they might have changed their mind. No longer.

• Key endorsement for Romney in New Hampshire

Judd Gregg, NH's senior Senator, just endorsed Mitt Romney. This is great news for the Romney campaign -- albeit not a great surprise since Gregg had long been a fan of Romney's. This means that Romney got good news in one morning from both Iowa and New Hampshire, underscoring exactly why he is in such a great position. Favored to win in both Iowa and New Hampshire, he is successfully following the classic model of winning presidential primaries and setting himself up for a one-two punch in Iowa and in New Hampshire. That would put him immediately in the driver's seat, with all other candidates scrambling to survive until February 5th.

• Rasmussen continues to show Rudy's rise

In another poll released this morning, Rasmussen shows Giuliani's rise once again. Yesterday, he showed Rudy up nine points against Clinton going from a 7 points deficit to a two point lead in two weeks. Today, Rasmussen shows Rudy up 10 points on John Edwards. A month ago, Edwards led by 9% (he led by 8% two months ago). Today, Rudy Giuliani is up 45% to 44%. But Edwards keeps his lead against Fred Thompson, 48% to 39%.

Ten days ago, the 3 Dems led all 12 match-ups against the 4 Reps. One by one, Rasmussen is peeling these away. Now Rudy is leading against Clinton and Edwards, and Mccain against Obama.