In the latest poll from Iowa’s Des Moines Register, Hillary Clinton leads the Democratic presidential candidates with 29% of the vote. Some details from the poll:

The Iowa Poll shows 29 percent of likely caucusgoers preferring Clinton, a New York senator, an improvement from the Register’s most recent poll in May.

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, was the choice of 23 percent in the new poll, slipping from the top spot since the May survey to nearly even with Obama.

Obama, an Illinois senator, was at 22 percent , virtually unchanged from May.

In the May version of the poll (results of which can be found at the aforementioned link), John Edwards was at 29%, Barack Obama at 23%, and Clinton at 21%. To me, this poll confirms other polling information - namely, that Clinton has been consistently gaining strength in Iowa, while Edwards has been unable to maintain his strength as the top choice. This could be detrimental to his campaign, given that he is rolling the dice on winning Iowa and using that as a springboard in other states. That being said, these results are far from concrete.

The race in Iowa remains fluid, but preferences have become firmer since May, with 53 percent of respondents saying they could be convinced to support someone else, down from 69 percent in May.

Given that the results of Iowa in 2004 were drastically different than what had been anticipated - Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt were expected to battle it out for top showing, not John Kerry and Edwards - this race is far from over. It probably won’t be until the last few weeks before the caucuses that a winner can be predicted with any sort of reasonable certainty.

A good source for some technical analysis on the race is done on a regular basis by Philadelphia-based blogger Chris Bowers over at Open Left. He has a running series entitled Nomination at a Glance that is always a good read.

As disclosure, I have not volunteered for any presidential campaign to date. I have made one donation (to Barack Obama this quarter), and, at different times writing under a pseudonym at other blogs, I have supported John Edwards and Obama. At this time, I am undecided.