Read em' and weep, peeps. It's Full Obama Ahead, or Grampa-Munster McCain over the Hilly.

Those numbers are pretty interesting. There are always more undecideds in the McCain-Obama matchup than the McCain-Clinton matchup.

David McDonald is also the super lawyer that won the Rossi challenge lawsuit for Gregoire. His is a big dude with the Washington State Democrats.

Go Obama!

Polls for the Nov. election; ridiculous.
Once Obama has the lazer beam of Republican wrath, in same fashion as Hillary has had, he will melt.

Oprah: have a review done of Obama's "composite" characters in his poorly written books. How differnt is this from Mr. Fry's memoir. . .

Hillary may have baggage but it is made of steel; like a Halliburton
case.

Washnigton State's DNC members voted unanimously as a solid bloc to re-elect Howard Dean as DNC chairman.

Implementing Dean's 50-state strategy successfully here in WA is directly responsible for the high caucus turnout -- and whether people believe this or not -- the Obama victory.

Because of that, I'd expect the "superdelegate" vote from this state to reflect the proportionality of the Obama win.

People should lobby "superdelegates" who their votes helped elect. Those people, after all, are your employees. I myself have done it, and I expect to continue doing it.

But "superdelegates" who are private citizens and not elected officials can tell you to piss up a rope, and there is nothing you can do about it. The notion that they can be "compelled" is preposterous.

@4: I disagree. The press loves McCain and they hate Hillary. In a Hillary v. McCain contest they'll be kissing all over him and they'll lacerate her. By contrast, they're all dewey-eyed over Obama's JFK-esque vibes.

Hillary is already well-known, so we can regard her current figures as her ceiling. If someone doesn't like Hillary now, they're unlikely to like her more in November. The biggest gift we could give the Republicans is nominating Hillary. It'll be Kerry all over again -- nominating a lackluster, unlikable candidate just because they're next in line.

@5--sorely-needed rational words among the superdelegate kerfuffle, Ivan. bravo.

Obama's got a lock on this thing, but the Stranger leaning in the Supes makes you guys look like nasty zealots. They get to vote however the fuck they like. If you don't like it, get elected to the national convention and change the rules.

OK, am I reading this wrong, or is this popular vote project results?

I'd like to see state by state break downs of these polls. As we all know president is not chosen by popular vote!

@8: I'm not leaning, I'm providing info so you can make your own educated guesses. Of course McDonald can and will vote however he likes!

@9: Yep, those are national. There haven't been very many recent state by state head-to-heads, but I did link to that one in Wisconsin.

Still trying to wrap my white middle class college educated head around the logic:

* The candidate who was elected by more people may be less electable.

This is why I'd never do well in politics.

Let's say hypothetically the super delegates hand the nomination to Hillary. And hypothetically Hillary is crushed by McCain. And then let's say Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell come around wondering if they can count on my vote in the election, and maybe I could spare a dime to help the get reelected. Well, hypothetically, I'd be feeling kind of bitter, and I imagine I'd be looking for someone to blame. That's all I'm saying.

If voters in Massachusetts want Kennedy or Kerry to switch to Hillary, that's between them and their constituents. Kennedy and Kerry aren't asking for my vote. If our representatives here in Washington don't care what we want them to do, then, well, duly noted.

Do I remember the older Bush saying ....I don't do the vision thing very well .... Bill Clinton trounced him.

Can it work for 7 more months for Barrak? Can it elect Obama? Stay tuned, I think it can.

Mc Cain will have access the brightest and best consultants R mega bucks can buy. His campaign will not be a flakey boot strap operation.

Media will be in a quandry - attack the war hero or the slick and charming newbie person of color? What a choice, Mc Cain might give new meaning to teflon in politics.

God what an exciting year. Hilary has a long shot chance - but her odds are bad.

Obama should announce his VP - upstage Hillary completely, as it must be a high profile add value to the ticket woman.

Calif. Diane Feinstein? Jewish, older, rather middle of the road, name well known, no negs and from giant state .... better idea?

It's a great thing that polls never change and Hillary has never underpolled, ain't it?

@13 A jew and an arab versus a cowboy? You're kidding, right?

Except you can't judge anyone's electability nine months from now based on poll results today. And almost all of those numbers are within the margin of error, making them meaningless. And polls are pretty unrealiable, considering that Obama didn't win New Hampshire and California by double digits like he was predicted to. And you have to call about 6,000 to 7,000 people to get 900 to answer.

Jesus, even right wing asshole Pat Robertson thinks McCain would be hard pressed to win an election over Obama. Lets nominate the guy and get on with it!

I read on CNN blogs that Hillary is starting to "go negative" in her campaign. Mainly, a MI ad she has states that Obama won't debate her because he is too busy off meeting people. Based on what I've seen in the past Hills does really well in debates and tends to do better in subsequent caucuses and primaries because of it. Although the ad leans towards the dark side, IMO she is trying the best she can to get as many votes as possible.

On a side note, is it better to vote for the person you think will be a better president, or for the person you think is more electable?

And btw, as far as I can remember, Cali was always expected to be an HRC state. I don't recall Obama ever having a double digit lead there...

But then I've turned a ripe old 27 recently... Maybe my old brain is getting moldy.

it's ME is only talking about Zogby. Everybody else is talking about the rest of the polls.

annie-

I respect most of your political writing very much, but...

I'm not leaning, I'm providing info so you can make your own educated guesses.

...is rank disingenuousness. Your paper has published six articles in the last 48 hours on flipping the superdelegates, including one gloating at the death of a Clinton superdelegate and another with links to superdelegates contact info.

You cannot pretend that your article lives in a vacuum, blissfully independent of everything that your fellow staffers have been writing.

@18: I think our most important goal needs to be avoiding another four years of Republican rule. I'm in favor of any Democrat that can make that happen.

@21: Sorry, but I'm serious. (And I meant "leaning" as in "leaning on McDonald to endorse," not anything to do with my personal views, which are obviously pro-Obama.) Everybody is interested in what the superdelegates are doing. OBVIOUSLY those supers can do what they want--those are the rules. OBVIOUSLY voters can ask their elected reps (which McDonald is not) to consider their views. (In both directions! A Clinton supporter such as yourself would be within your rights to ask Murray and Cantwell to stay put.)

It was Josh, a precinct delegate for none other than Hillary Clinton, who posted about the death of Rep. Lantos.

I read the PI article and thought McDonald might be leaning Obama. Am I in any way demanding that he vote for Obama? Show me where. Really, I'm pro-Obama, but I never asked McDonald to do anything. That would be ridiculous.

But not writing about superdelegates would be equally ridiculous. Le sigh.

annie- None of this matters. Your guy has decisively won seven states, several lily-white, in a row. It's a lock.

Did you like Soderbergh's "Solaris"? I keep recommending it to people, and then afterwards they say it was like watching paint dry... But I like "Angels and Insects", too, so I like dem slow movies...

Well, I don't know that it's a lock, but I won't argue. I don't like Soderbergh's Solaris, but if you want slow, you should try Tarkovsky's--it's at least twice as long. I can get behind Angels & Insects though. My kind of slow is Tsai Ming Liang, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Claire Denis, etc.

Two things:

David McDonald was an early Dean backer in 2004. I don't recall whether he declared before Paul Berendt (the first state chair to endorse Howard), but he was strongly behind Dean the whole way.

Ivan is spot-on in his analysis of the superdelegates. Everyone looks at the electeds among the PLEOs, because they recognize the names and because the press reports on their decisions. But half of the superdelegates are state chairs and DNC members, who have seen first hand that the 50-state strategy works, and who have already begun to reap its early fruits. It's well known that the Clintons don't like Dean and really don't like the 50-state strategy. As I see it, the first party-related action by a President Clinton would be to kill the 50-state strategy, and her second action would be to demand Dean's resignation as party chair. I'm sure there's some corporation-suckling Terry McAuliffe clone already lined up to replace Howard.

With all that in mind, how do you think the DNC-oriented superdelegates would break??

I will try the Tarkovsky.