The Democratic Primary is Tighter than Willie Nelson's Headband
It's not as dramatic as the Huckasurge (Huckaboom? Huckacaust?) but Barack Obama is steadily eating away at Hillary Clinton's once-stratospheric poll leads. In Iowa Obama's cut from Clinton's and John Edwards' numbers and risen to a narrow one-point lead. In New Hampshire, Clinton's so-called firewall state (where she could resist an Obama Iowa win with her own win 5 days later), Clinton's lead is down to 5.2 points from a high of 25. In South Carolina, home of the "Clinton gets more black votes than Obama" storyline, Clinton's lead is 0.7 percent, and the latest poll (PDF) shows Obama winning the black vote by 56 to 21.
Clinton's media pushback consists of, among other things, this howler of a press release.
The new CBS/NYT poll released yesterday reveals that voters—by wide margins—think Hillary Clinton is the Democrat with the best chance of winning the general election. Nearly two-thirds of voters (63 percent), more than four times the number chose Obama (14 percent), believe Hillary is the best bet for taking back the White House. The poll comes on the heels of others showing very similar findings: a CNN poll from last week shows Hillary more than doubling Obama (53-25) on who has the best chance to beat the Republican nominee, LA Times/Bloomberg has Hillary leading 54-17 on the same question, and a Time poll from mid-November shows Hillary is by far the most likely to win the general election (76-23 versus 61-38 for Obama).
Funny thing about these polls is that they reflect not Clinton strength but voter ignorance. Obama actually polls as well or better than Clinton against the top five GOP candidates. Sure, some Democratic voters know Clinton is polarizing and think she can overcome that by outsmarting the GOP—no floundering and blowing questions about swift boats or the macabre fate of Kitty Dukakis. And… what happens to that feeling if Clinton hands Iowa to Obama?
Headline explained here.