UNH poll: Romney, Clinton hold solid leads, McCain and Edwards tank

Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney retain comfortable leads as front-runners in New Hampshire, according to a new poll released this afternoon.

While the poll had good news for Clinton and Romney, it provided bad news for John Edwards and John McCain, both of whom have seen their support drop dramatically in recent months.

The CNN/WMUR-TV poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center puts Romney at 33 percent, far ahead of Rudy Giuliani at 18 percent, Fred Thompson at 13 percent, and John McCain at 12 percent. On the Democratic side, Clinton had 36 percent to Barack Obama's 27 percent, and Bill Richardson's 11 percent. John Edwards dropped to fourth place, with 9 percent.

Among the significant points in this poll:

- It is the first time in New Hampshire that a poll showed Richardson leading Edwards.
- Romney's support went up 5 points from the last poll. This, combined with his 11-point increase last time, means that Romney has surged 16 points in two months.
- Obama is winning among independents; Clinton is winning among traditional Democrats.
- A whopping 38 percent of likely Republican voters said they would "never" vote for John McCain.

More details of the poll will be released on WMUR-TV tonight.