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A new Iowa caucus poll from Lee Enterprises newspapers shows the Democratic race is a virtual three-way tie, with John Edwards rising to tie Barack Obama for the lead and Hillary Clinton rising to just one point behind.

Edwards and Obama were tied with 29 percent to lead Democrats, followed by Clinton with 28 percent. Bill Richardson was fourth with 7 percent. Joe Biden was fifth with 3 percent. Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich both had 1 percent and 2 percent were undecided.

For Republicans, Mike Huckabee leads with 34 percent, followed by Mitt Romney with 27 percent. Fred Thompson is a distant third with 11 percent, followed by a three-way tie for fourth between Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Ron Paul, with 8 points each. Duncan Hunter had 1 percent and 3 percent were undecided.

The margin of error is 4.5 percent.

A Strategic Vision poll released Thursday had Obama, Clinton and Edwards at 30 percent, 29 percent and 28 percent respectively, well within its 4.5 percent margin of error. On the Republican side, Huckabee led Romney 29 percent to 27 percent, a statistical tie. Thompson was third at 15 percent followed by Giuliani at 14 percent and all others in single digits. The margin of error in this poll is also 4.5 percent.

If these polls can be believed about Edwards upward movement, it might make a prophet out of CQ Politics blogger Richard Whalen who predicted in his Dec. 17 posting that Edwards would win an upset victory in the caucuses.