In the first few months of 2007, Barack Obama burst onto the national political scene and quickly took hold of the number two slot in the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination.

For the month of April, just before the first of way too many Presidential debates, Obama’s support averaged 31% in the Rasmussen Reports weekly national polling update and he seemed poised to audition for the role of frontrunner (see summary of weekly poll results).

But, those April numbers represented a peak for Obama. His numbers slipped to 27% in May, 26% in June, 25% in July and 23% in August. He managed to stabilize in September and hold steady at 23%. For the week ending October 7, his numbers have inched back up a few points. It’s too early to tell if this is a turnaround, but it is worth watching.

One possibility is that Obama is gaining ground at the expense of John Edwards. The 2004 Vice Presidential nominee has struggled in both polls and fundraising. He recently announced that his campaign will accept public financing and all the restrictions that entails. Still, Edwards does better than any other Democrat in general election match-ups against GOP hopefuls (see summary of all match-ups and other key stats for Democratic and Republican candidates).

Through it all, Hillary Clinton remains the Democratic frontrunner. As noted a week ago, her nomination is not inevitable. However, she has gained support throughout the year and is showing no signs of letting it slip away. Rather than a sudden surge of support, Clinton’s approach has been slow and steady. She was supported by 33% of Likely Democratic Primary Voters in April. Her support then increased to 35% in May, 36% in June, 39% in July and 41% in August. It slipped a point to 40% in September but is up to 42% in early October.

Rasmussen Reports conducts national telephone surveys on the Presidential race every night and releases updated data from our Presidential Tracking Poll by noon each day, Monday through Friday.

For the seven days ending October 7, 2007, Hillary Clinton earns 42% of the vote. Barack Obama is second at 26% followed by John Edwards at 12%. Bill Richardson attracts 4% while Joe Biden is at 3% and Dennis Kucinich at 2%. Chris Dodd is supported by 1% Mike Gravel less than half a percent. Ten percent (13%) of Likely Democratic Primary Voters are undecided (review history of weekly results).

The seven day results typically include interviews with more than 1,000 Likely Democratic Primary Voters. This includes both Democrats and those independents likely to vote in a Democratic Primary. In some state primaries, independent voters are allowed to participate in party primaries while in others they are excluded. The margin of sampling error for the weekly update is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Updates prior to July 16 were based upon four days of polling conducted the Monday through Thursday preceding release.

Rasmussen Reports continuously updates general election match-ups and other measures for all Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates.