Quinnipiac says its a 9 point race in PA

Good news and bad news for Obama fans in the latest Quinnipiac poll released today.  The PA primary race is a 9-point spread, 50-41 for Hillary.  That falls in the middle between the other two polls we've seen from Ras (5 points) and SUSA (12 points).

The bad news comes in the head to head match-ups with McCain.  Clinton outperforms Obama in FL, OH and PA according to these polls.  Now, in fairness, I am sharing the bad news too - because, really, all you have to do is click on the link and then you'd read it for yourself anyway.  But, this bad news doesn't concern me all that much.  Would I like to see Barack way out ahead in all these polls?  Of course.  But, head to head matchups with McCain mean little right now because we don't have a defined, single Dem candidate yet.  Most of us understand that Obama will be the nominee, but it is still not perceived that way everywhere.  Once that happens, Obama will get a bounce everywhere.  Second, these are three states where Clinton leads Obama in polls or, in the case of Ohio, has won the primary.  These should be states where she also is performing better.  It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Clinton supporters in these states told pollsters they'd vote for McCain over Obama.  (And the same can be said for Obama supporters too.)  First, they may actually feel that way now out of anger and, second, they may think it will help their candidate to make the other appear weak in these polls.

So... the McCain head to heads are still too premautre to mean much.  But, the 9 point spread between Hillary and Barack in the PA primary is interesting.  If Barack makes can keep the differnece in PA in single digits, that will be very significant for furthering the perception that Hillary can't catch up and is simply impeding the ability of the Democratic party to unify and move forward to November.