Both Obama And Clinton Hold Edge Over McCain

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Washington Post

By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 6, 2008; A09

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) kicks off his general-election campaign trailing both potential Democratic nominees in hypothetical matchups, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) leads McCain, who captured the delegates needed to claim the Republican nomination Tuesday night, by 12 percentage points among all adults in the poll; Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) holds a six-point lead over the GOP nominee. Both Democrats are buoyed by moderates and independents when going head to head with McCain and benefit from sustained negative public assessments of President Bush and the war in Iraq.

About two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job and think the war was not worth fighting, and most hold those positions "strongly." A slim majority also doubt that the United States is making progress toward restoring civil order in Iraq, even as McCain and others extol recent successes there. These views are closely related to voters' choices: McCain does poorly against Clinton and Obama among those who disapprove of the president and those opposing the war. Among independents, those who see improvements in Iraq prefer McCain to either Democrat, while six in 10 of those more skeptical of progress would go for a Democrat.

Another obstacle for McCain may be his age. More than a quarter of those polled said they are less inclined to support McCain because he would be the oldest person ever to become president. The percentage discouraged by McCain's age is more than double that of people who would be less enthusiastic about supporting Obama because he is African American or Clinton because she is a woman....

The poll was conducted before Tuesday's contests, in which Clinton scored victories in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas while Obama prevailed in Vermont. The victories were Clinton's first in a month, and they further unsettled the Democratic contest....

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030502646.html

[Orsino]

1. Duh.

Obama and Clinton look more like hope, and more like most Americans, than could any rich old white man the Republicans run. McCain is toast.

[CountAllVotes]

2. being there are 3X the # of Democrats voting

it is no wonder that either candidate would win against McCain. :dunce:

[Red1]

3. See

this is the b.s. of the press today.

yesterday, hillary couldn't win agin mckain,

[Just-plain-Kathy]

4. Boy, if we can't win in a race against a pro-war/pro-Bush candidate, we're in trouble.

[Warbler]

5. McCain

Obama and Hillary are stars, and McCain is old and uninspiring

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Indeed, Warbler -- welcome to DU!!!

[Maeve]

6. I trust the Post more than I trust the LAT poll eom

[Carrieyazel]

8. Rasmussen has McCain leading by a few points over both Dems.

We've got to be careful that we're not being misled here. We hope this Post poll is right, but ABC/Wash. Post polls are some of the most inaccurate and way off polls out there. They routinely overestimate approval ratings, (like Shrub's; having him 8-10 points higher than other polls) and their pre-2006 election polls were not even close to being right. I'd like to believe this, but the minute I read the story I discounted it. Something is way off here. This poll is wildly different than several others I've seen lately. Rasmussen has the best track record in recent years, predicting with excellent precision our huge victories in 2006.