It's looking more and more like McCain will be the GOP nominee. A just released LAT/Bloomberg poll has this to say, from a national matchup perspective:
"If Republicans are looking for a strong candidate to put up against the Democrats, it looks like McCain may be their candidate. Clinton leads the Arizona senator by four points and Obama and McCain virtually split the vote (42% for Obama, 41% for McCain) although both match-ups are well within the poll’s margin of error." http://www.calendarlive.com/...
Survey USA just released a series of head to head state polls. John McCain is clearly the strongest GOP candidate. http://www.surveyusa.com/...
But the question is -- how did "high negatives" Hillary do versus McCain when compared to Obama? I found the results a bit surprising:
1/23 polls
CA Clinton 57 McCain 38 Clinton +19
Obama 50 McCain 44 Obama +6
MA Clinton 49 McCain 45 Clinton +4
McCain 50 Obama 45 Obama -5
NM McCain 51 Clinton 42 Clinton -9
McCain 50 Obama 41 Obama -9
NY Clinton 53 McCain 40 Clinton +13
Obama 49 McCain 43 Obama +6
WI Clinton 45 McCain 49 Clinton -4
Obama 44 McCain 46 Obama -2
MN Clinton 45 McCain 49 Clinton -4
Obama 42 McCain 49 Obama -7
1/18 polls
AL Clinton 37 McCain 58 Clinton -21
Obama 29 McCain 63 Obama -34
KS Clinton 40 McCain 53 Clinton -13
Obama 39 McCain 53 Obama -14
VA Clinton 43 McCain 52 Clinton -9
Obama 40 McCain 52 Obama -12
In the last four national head to head polls, we have these results:
(Clinton vs. McCain)
LAT/Bloomberg 01/18 - 01/22 Clinton +4.0
USA Today/Gallup 01/10 - 01/13 McCain +3.0
Hotline/FD 01/10 - 01/12 803 McCain +4.0
CNN 01/09 - 01/10 Clinton +2.0
Net: McCain +1
(Obama v. McCain)
LA Times/Bloomberg McCain +1.0
USA Today/Gallup McCain +5.0
Hotline/FD Obama +2.0
CNN Obama +1.0
Net: McCain +3
It appears from this set of polls that Clinton is actually slightly stronger than Obama versus McCain. What is troubling is how relatively poorly Obama does in California and Massachusetts. In the coming weeks it behooves us to keep an eye out on these head to head polls.
*Please report any errors I've made in copying the data.