Following on yesterday's post, a tipster points to a new Clemson University poll of South Carolina voters that finds immigration ranking second as the issue most on the minds of Republican voters there.

"Iraq and the war" top the list as the "most important problem" for 22 percent of Republicans, trailed by immigration at 14 percent. On the Democratic side, Iraq tops at 31 percent, but immigration is No. 6, with 4 percent citing it. The No. 2 issue for Democratic voters is health insurance, with 17 percent citing it.

As for the overall poll, it has some good news for newly minted candidate Fred Thompson, showing him topping the field at 19 percent support, followed by Rudy Giuliani, with 18 percent, and John McCain, at 15 percent.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Rodham Clinton tops, at 26 percent, followed by Barack Obama, at 16 percent. Among black voters, who make up about half of the Democratic primary electorate, Clinton leads 28-23, with about 40 percent still undecided.

The poll is bad news for John Edwards, the native son who represented next-door North Carolina and won here in the 2004 Democratic primary. The poll found just one in 10 Democratic voters supporting him at this point.

-- Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times