The much anticipated Iowa poll is out (GOP write up here, Dem write up here), and contrary to other recent polls, it contains some much needed good news for Barack Obama. Obama has picked up four points in the new poll vs one month ago while Clinton and Edwards remained flat, and second tier candidates Richardson and Biden ticked down:

Democrats
Obama 32 (+4 vs. last poll Nov 25-28)
Clinton 25 (nc)
Edwards 24 (+1)
Richardson 6 (-3)
Biden 4 (-2)
Undecided 6

Of particular interesting is the break out of the two day rolling averages over the four day sample showing Clinton on a steady decline with Obama and Edwards trending positive:

Overall, Clinton still leads by 1.6% in the RCP Average for Iowa.

On the Republican side, Huckabee maintains his lead over Romney, while McCain looks to be winning the important battle for third place, doubling his support over the last month to 13%. Thompson is in danger of falling into fifth place in this poll, and the bottom appears to have completely fallen out for Rudy in Iowa:

Republicans
Huckabee 32 (+3 vs. last poll Nov 25-28)
Romney 26 (+2)
McCain 13 (+6)
Thompson 9 (nc)
Paul 9 (+2)
Giuliani 5 (-8)
Undecided 4

Again, the break out of the two day rolling averages give an idea of the trend over the four day sample. As you can see, Romney appeared to tick down slightly but overall the trendlines for all the candidates appear surprisingly stable:

Huckabee is now back on top in the RCP Average for Iowa, but by less than a single percentage point.

Also of note: roughly 1/3 of likely Democratic caucusgoers and 1/2 of likely Republican caucusgoers say they "could still be persuaded to support another candidate." Stay tuned.