We are exactly a year from Election Day, and a new poll has Clinton ahead big

The 2008 election is scheduled for November 4th, 2008 -- so it is exactly a year from now! A long time to wait certainly, but don't forget that the primary season is less than two months away (perhaps even a month if New Hampshire moves to December). With that, every news cycle is becoming increasingly important!

• New national poll confirms McCain's rebirth, while Clinton has some massive general election leads
  

The latest ABC/Washington Post poll is out, and it has good news for Hillary Clinton... and John McCain:

• The general election numbers have Clinton crossing 50% against all Republicans. Her lead against Giuliani is the narrowest: 50% to 46%. But Clinton posts massive leads against the rest of the field: 52% to 43% against John McCain; 56% to 40% against Fred Thompson; and 57% to 39% against Mitt Romney. That 57% of voters are ready to vote for Hillary should remind Republicans that they cannot rely on an anti-Hillary campaign to win this whole thing.
  
• In a sure sign of the toxic environment for the GOP, only 39% of voters have a favorable impression of the Republican Party, against 51% who do of the Democrats.
  
• In the race for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton continues posting a massive lead, ahead of Barack Obama 49% to 26%. This has a bit narrowed since the end of September, however, when Clinton led 53% to 20%. It has been a while that Clinton has stopped systematically crossing 50% -- though she is as close as can be.
• In the Republican race, Rudy Giuliani stays ahead at 33%, while McCain has jumped up in the past few weeks to take second place at 19% -- confirming that there is new life in his campaign! Thompson is third at 16% while Romney cannot get anywhere nationally (not that he needs to considering his strength in the early states) at 11%. Huckabee is at his highest, with a very impressive 9%.

• Sort of a new endorsement for Hillary

Clinton is getting most endorsements from establishment Democrats -- though the latest one is not a surprise, since it had been floated around for about a month now. Former Vice President Walter Mondale (and the Democratic nominee in 1984 against Ronald Reagan) formally announced his support for Hillary today. It would have been an interesting storyline if Mondale had chosen someone else, however, given that the primary cycle 2008 is being compared to the most is the 1984 Mondale versus Gary Hart showdown.

What is most amazing is that Clinton managed to drag this story on for a month: Between when the news that Mondale would endorse her first broke out and when Mondale formally announced his support was a three week span. This speaks to the ability of the Clinton campaign to dictate its news coverage... and change the subject admirably when times get rough. Three weeks ago, Clinton was facing a barrage of attacks on her Iran vote. Today, it is her double-talk that is being scrutinized. But Clinton can count on her frontrunner status to soon get some good news somewhere (endorsement, new poll numbers). Remember how the AFSCME endorsed her the day after the Philadelphia debate?

• Obama continues his offensive

It appears that Barack Obama has decided to change the tone of his campaign indeed, as he is attacking Hillary Clinton from all corners. The latest offensive concerns the release of the Clinton library papers, among which there are thousands of pages relating to Hillary's years in the White House. The Clintons had been blocking the release of some of these papers, but it appears a large amount of them will now be released by the National Archives at the end of January. Already at the debate, Obama had charged that Clinton cannot claim experience because of her years as First Lady and refuse to release these documents, implicitly relating her secrecy to the one of the Bush Administration (especially of Dick Cheney).

While the conservative groups that were pressuring the Clintons to release these papers are now satisfied, the Obama camp is now continuing his offensive, arguing that the papers should be released before the Iowa caucuses. The Politico's Ben Smith explains why this is now out of Clinton's hands since January is the earliest the National Archives can go through all the work that is required pre-release. Yet Obama's strategy, though disingenuous, is smart:

The Clinton scandals are the part of the 1990s that even Democrats are very uncomfortable of. Obama must find a way to undermine the huge advantage Hillary is getting from her husband, but he cannot attack Bill frontally given how popular the former President is among Democratic voters. By insisting on an issue like the library papers, Obama is hoping that voters recall what they did not like in the 1990s without going after Bill Clinton at all.