The former secretary of state was not so gentle at an Indianola, Iowa, event on Thursday when she delivered a blistering assessment of Sanders' credentials, imploring Iowa voters to scrutinize his policies and readiness for the White House.

This Suffolk survey calculated roughly one third of Democratic voters in the primary would be independent voters.

And, for now, the former secretary of state has an advantage in a series of Southern-heavy primaries and caucuses after Iowa and New Hampshire. "But it's ultimately not a winning general election message, it's a protest message".

A CNN poll gave Sanders a shock lead, 51 percent to 43 percent, and O'Malley at 4 percent.

"Senator Sanders doesn't talk much about foreign policy, but when he does it raises concerns", Clinton said.

On Thursday, Clinton's campaign denounced her presidential rival Bernie Sanders over his proposal to normalize relations with Iran.

It's an issue Clinton has recently used in attacks against her opponent, painting Sanders with an irresponsible record on firearm legislation while in Congress.

Though less provocative, it offers parallels to Clinton's "3 a.m." ad against Obama, which asked voters who they would want to answer the early morning phone call to respond to a global challenge. Both were critical in Obama's Iowa victory in 2008 and will be counted upon heavily, along with independent voters who can register for the Democratic caucuses if they choose.

By 44 percent to 30 percent gap, those surveyed said Clinton more closely reflected their opinion on gun control than Sanders. The speech, one adviser said, was created to "shake some sense into Iowans" and escalate the experience argument she has been making against Sanders with limited success.

"I have to say I didn't understand that at all".

The 2008 Democratic field included eight major candidates, driving up turnout.

Brock told the AP that he thought Sanders' new "America" ad, which uses Simon and Garfunkel's song of the same name in lieu of spoken words, was focused on white voters.

Bottom line: Clinton has been ahead in most polls of this state - though it seems highly unlikely she would win by 29 points. The Clinton campaign struck back with a post on Medium written by campaign chair John Podesta.

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen.