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November 06, 2007

CNN Poll Shows Slippage from Hillary

Rick Moran
The constant attacks on Hillary Clinton from both her Democratic rivals and Republican opponents is apparently beginning to tell on her poll numbers.

The latest CNN/Opinion Research Poll show the former First Lady still enjoying a big lead but her position has weakened since her poor performance in last week's debate:

"Clinton's strength is about where it was throughout the summer, indicating that she has lost the support she gained last month but that Obama has not yet cut into her core constituency," CNN political director Keating Holland said.

Clinton is the top choice of 44 percent of the likely Democratic voters interviewed for the poll. Her closest rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, was the top choice of 25 percent, and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has 14 percent.

All other Democratic candidates were in single digits. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was backed by 4 percent, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware by 3 percent, Sen. Christopher Dodd by 2 percent, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich by 2 percent and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel was at 1 percent.
Keeping Clinton below 50% is the goal of the other Democratic candidates and it appears that Hillary has helped them out on that score by her less than stellar performance in the debate last week where she couldn't seem to give a straight answer to Tim Russert's question about drivers licenses for illegal aliens.

Since them, Hillary has been accused of playing the "gender card" and whining about the other candidates ganging up on her. This makes her appear weaker which could be one explanation for her drop in the polls.

On the Republican side, Rudy Giuliani is still in the lead while Fred Thompson is maintaining a surprisingly strong 2nd place:

In the Republican presidential race, Giuliani continues to be the leading candidate, with the backing of 28 percent of the Republican primary voters polled. Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee was backed by 19 percent. Sen. John McCain of Arizona was the top pick of 16 percent, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 11 percent.

Of the remaining Republican candidates, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee received 10 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul 5 percent, California Rep. Duncan Hunter 4 percent and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo 3 percent.
Giuliani's numbers have been higher in other polls - over 30% in some - and his lead has been bigger. The strength of Thompson's national numbers comes on the heels of other polls showing his support slipping McCain has apparently made a remarkable recovery from his collapse last summer although he has little money to compete in the primaries. And with Mitt Romney barely breaking double digits nationally, one begins to wonder if anyone will be able to catch Giuliani before he gets so far ahead that his victory would be all but assured.

A year out from the election and "uncertainty" still leads the field.

Posted at 09:18 AM | Email |

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