Morning polls: Clinton slowly but surely inching ahead of Giuliani

• Florida leans Clinton
  

As has been the case for the past few elections, Democrats winning Florida would surely be enough to put them in the White House. And the GOP is bound to feel the pressure of the new SUSA poll, that shows Clinton handily beating her three Republican rivals:

• Clinton beats Giuliani 49% to 43%. She tops Thompson more comfortably 50% to 42% and Romney 51% to 41%.
• Obama does very poorly, winning none of his three match-ups. He trails Giuliani 50% to 41%, Thompson 48% to 42% and Romney 46% to 44%.
• Edwards comes somewhere between the two. He loses to Giuliani 48% to 43% but beats Thompson 46% to 43% and Romney 50% to 37%.

While this is not the first poll showing Clinton doing significantly better than Obama, this one is striking given Obama's inability to beat even Romney, and Clinton's comfortable lead against all Republicans. While no conclusions can be drawn about how competitive Obama will become after a few more months of campaigning, this should at least lay to rest worries that Clinton is not electable in the general election. John Kerry and Al Gore would have done anything for a 6 point lead in Florida...

• Washington Post finds a Clinton boost

The Washington Post came out today with a national poll. The survey contains a number of surprising findings. First, Clinton has pulled away from Giuliani in a head-to-head match-up 51% to 43%. Having her support top 50% is the first sign that talk of voter dislike of Clinton is exaggerated. Among those who follow the election very closely, Clinton's lead expands to a 58% to 40% whooping.

This is confirmed by the astonishing finding that, "Forty-one percent of those surveyed said they definitely would not vote for Clinton in the general election if she were the Democratic nominee, one of the lowest reject rates among the leading candidates in either of the two major parties." Not what Republicans like to think, and not what the Obama and Edwards campaigns like to argue.

• Third-party candidacy hurts Giuliani

A few days after conservative religious leaders threatened to support a third-party candidacy if Rudy Giuliani wins the Republican nomination, Rasmussen decided to figure out how detrimental that would be to Giuliani's electability in the general election. While hardly surprising, the results suggest many conservatives would prefer voting for the pro-life candidate: A full 27% said they would vote for a third-party if there was such a choice.

In a three-way-race, Rasmussen finds Clinton ahead 46% to 30%, with a full 14% of the vote going to the Religious Right's candidate. While it is unlikely that Giuliani would bleed so much of his support when the campaign took off and as conservatives realize they might not want Hillary Clinton in the White House, but Giuliani can hardly afford to lose even a fraction of his vote given how close the election appears to be.