As Democrats ready for a key debate at Dartmouth College tonight, a new poll released yesterday shows support for Sen. Hillary Clinton among likely Democratic presidential primary votes has soared and she now has a more than two-to-one lead over Sen. Barack Obama.

A University of New Hampshire poll completed for WMUR and CNN shows that with non-candidate Al Gore in the survey, Clinton is supported by 41 percent of those polled to 19 percent for Obama. Without Gore in the mix, it's Clinton with 43 percent and Obama with 20 percent,

Today, the New Hampshire Union Leader has learned, UNH will release a poll done for the same television outlets showing that John McCain has gained on front-runners Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.

The GOP poll is expected to show that Romney's support has slightly eroded since the last UNH poll in July, while Giuliani and McCain have gained support. McCain is expected to be within, or close to, the poll's margin of error behind the two.

In yesterday's Democratic poll, John Edwards was third at 12 percent and Bill Richardson fourth, at 6 percent.

The poll also shows that while most likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters have a preference, fully 55 percent have yet to make up their minds. The GOP poll will show an even higher percentage of likely voters in that primary who have yet to make up their minds. That's down from 64 percent in a July poll by UNH.

Clinton's lead in the same poll in July was 8 percentage points, 33 to 25 percent.

In an August poll by the American Research Group, Clinton led Obama 37 to 17 percent.

The new UNH poll interviewed 307 adults who said they plan to vote in the Democratic primary. The margin of error is 5.5 percent.

The new UNH poll shows that 54 percent of New Hampshire Democratic voters believe Clinton has the best chance of defeating the GOP nominee in a general election, compared to 37 percent in the July survey.

The poll also shows that 36 percent believe Clinton is the most likely to bring change to the country, as compared to 24 percent for Obama.

The poll was released on the same day Obama's campaign began airing its first New Hampshire television ad, in which the Illinois senator asks voters to believe in his ability to bring change to Washington.

Richardson's campaign yesterday announced a new ad will begin airing today featuring prominent liberal bloggers saying that Richardson is the only candidate who will truly end the war in Iraq by bring all American troops home except for a small group to guard the embassy.

Richardson said he intends to make the distinction between his position and those of Clinton, Obama and Edwards the "centerpiece" of tonight's debate.

He said he will challenge the others "as to why they want to leave troops behind. I'm going to press it intensely. That's a fundamental issue dividing the three major candidates and myself."

Richardson also set expectations for himself in the New Hampshire primary. He said he needs to finish third, ahead of one of the three front-runners.