A new poll by NBC News shows Hillary Clinton continues to lengthen her lead over her rivals for the Democratic nomination. The poll has interesting dissections of the data, segmenting out Democrats from Democratic leaners. More on the flip.
Among Democrats, Clinton has a substantial advantage over her opponents for the Democratic nomination:
Hillary Clinton 46
Barack Obama 23
John Edwards 12
Among Democratic leaners, Clinton leads, though by not as significant margins; Obama has no advantage among leaners who seem to have slightly greater fondness for Edwards than do persons who identify themselves strictly as Democrats:
Hillary Clinton 38
Barack Obama 23
John Edwards 18
The bottom line in this particular poll is that Hillary leads by a margin similar to data from today’s Rasmussen. These are the NBC aggregated Democratic/Democratic Leaner numbers:
Hillary Clinton 44
Barack Obama 23
John Edwards 12
(Rasmussen today had Hillary at 45, Obama at 21, and Edwards at 11.)
Naturally, the polls don’t tell us what will happen in five months in the primaries, but they do seem to suggest that only some unforeseeable event between now and the primaries will prevent Hillary’s nomination.