The tides are certainly turning. Hillary Rodham Clinton continues to gain support, and is, in fact, out pacing Obama in current polls against McCain. Senator Clinton is still a more formidable candidate for president than the presumptuous nominee, and she’s suspended her campaign.
Rasmussen reports:
However, McCain fares better against Obama than he does against two other prominent Democrats. New York Senator Hillary Clinton leads McCain by eight points, 50% to 42%. Former Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000, leads McCain 50% to 43%.
These numbers help explain why Election 2008 is competitive even though events so heavily favor the Democrats — because the Republicans are on course to nominate their strongest possible general election candidate but the Democrats are not. Perhaps even more importantly, the data suggests that voters don’t see a potential McCain Administration as the third term of President Bush. [emphasis added]
It’s also important and stunning to note, that Hillary Clinton also does better than Al Gore against McCain, albeit by one percentage point. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic standard bearer and the choice of the majority of Americans, and she’s not the presumptive nominee.
Finally, people are realizing that Obama is not the strongest candidate against McCain. If you can’t out perform a candidate who has suspended her campaign and called for the Party to unite behind you, you simply can’t perform.
Apparently, the superdelegates are catching on as well. Alegre is reporting that 8 superdelegates who had declared for Senator Obama are now expressing that, given the chance, they will vote for Hillary at the Convention. Alegre got the word directly from our beloved PUMA spokesperson, Will Bower:
“A large phone banking effort to the super d’s combined with Obama’s flips and poor presumptive nominee performance, etc have yielded doubts within the super delegates, enough that 3 elected and 5 DNC members have confided that should they have the opportunity to do so, they will vote for Hillary.” [emphasis added]
This isn’t nearly over.
Which explains why Obama, Brazile, Dean and others are trying to keep Hillary off the ballot at the Convention. Hillary Rodham Clinton is clearly the strongest candidate. She finished the primary season with the momentum, winning the popular vote and the overwhelming majority of states post March 4th, even South Dakota which was projected as a win for Obama, after Obama had been declared inevitable and the deafening cries for Hillary to leave the race had reached fever pitch.
There are only two options: Hillary or McCain ‘08.
