Kevin Drum blogs today’s Los Angeles Times poll (PDF):
[Clinton’s] supporters are more firmly in her camp than Edwards’ or Obama’s. Interesting! I would have guessed that Obama had the bigger corps of highly dedicated supporters. Second, and more important, Hillary leads not just in the general category of “more experienced,” but in the very specific categories of “best at fighting terrorism” and “best at ending the Iraq war.” And she leads by enormous margins.
Also worth noting is that Clinton leads the “Have the best chance of beating the Republican candidate in November” category by double digits in Iowa and a stunning 30 or more points in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Since concerns about electability derailed Howard Dean’s campaign and brought John Kerry to the forefront in 2004, Hillary’s advantage in this category could prove to be decisive. The problem, of course, is that primary voters were wrong about John Kerry’s electability. Could they be wrong about Hilldog’s?
—Nick Baumann
