Romney looms large in the Republican race. With Hizzoner going down with corruption, Romney increasingly looks like the Man to Beat.

Indeed a Strategic Vision poll has Obama up 7%; it also has Huckabee leading Romney by 3%.

The NH numbers in this poll are broadly consistent with the RCP averages (in those averages, Clinton's NH lead has gone from about 20 to about 10 over the last few weeks).

Obama's momentum is showing that the more voters learn about him the more they like him as a presidential candidate. That bodes very well, hopefully, for him in the general election because he's already much better liked than Clinton. The trend is just the opposite for Clinton which does not bode well given that she begins with higher negatives.

Further confirming my suspicion, expressed here yesterday, that recent flailings by Hillary, Mr. Hillary and Mark Penn among others evidences a serious collapse in Clinton's internal poll numbers nationally.

Bet a Whitewater lot on it

Assuming that is true, that would be Obama +3, Clinton -4, Edwards +2 from the last Strategic Vision poll taken 11/23-11/25.

That might suggest Clinton's "fun" new negative strategy is not working out so well, even if the goal is not winning but rather a murder-suicide.

Hillary's strategy, I believe, is this: (1) Win Iowa if it is possible, but (2) if it is not possible, let Edwards take Iowa and Obama come in third. Edwards, she believes, won't be a challenge in New Hampshire. Obama will be stillborn, and Hillary will sail to the nomination.

"When you see a bad poll, you say 'that’s a lousy poll, don’t pay any attention to that.' But with more favorable numbers, it's: 'Wow, look at that! This is huge!'"

US Senator John McCain, quoted by The Politico.

:-)

Hillary does have has some reason for concern in New Hampshire, though — her support has gone from 38% in New Hampshire back in late September, down to 32% now.

LOL. Eric, in view of the well established that polls always tighten the closer the election date, I would say that Clinton is doing extremely well in NH with an 11 point lead. And I notice how her being "ahead" in IA is not being called a "lead", whereas the same margin last week was heralded everywhere as Obama taking the "lead." I would say that at this point, it is the other candidates, particularly Obama, who need to start getting worried. As for "electability", below are fresh GE numbers from Quinnipiac U for FL, OH and PA.

These are very good numbers for Hillary all around, meanng that she very much remains the candidate to beat, and that she would be the strongest GE candidate for the Dems.

General Election Match-ups:

* Florida (n=1,124)

Clinton 48%, Giuliani 41%
Giuliani 45%, Obama 37%
Giuliani 43%, Edwards 39%

Clinton 47%, McCain 40%
Clinton 50%, ROmney 36%
Clinton 50%, Huckabee 35%

* Ohio (n=1,178)

Clinton 45%, Giuliani 41%
Obama 42%, Giuliani 38%
Edwards 45%, Giuliani 38%

Clinton 44%, McCain 42%
Clinton 47%, Romney 37%
Clinton 45%, Huckabee 38%

* Pennsylvania (n=1,092)

Clinton 44%, Giuliani 44%
Obama 41%, Giuliani 41%
Giuliani 44%, Edwards 40%

Clinton 43%, McCain 43%
Clinton 49%, Romney 37%
Clinton 48%, Huckabee 37%

Actually, in December 2003 and early January 2004, Dean's lead over Kerry in NH was increasing, not decreasing. In fact, in an ARG tracking poll, Clark actually took over second place from Kerry in early January.

Of course it is true that Kerry began surging in NH polls about 2 1/2 weeks before the primary, and after winning Iowa, Kerry's numbers took off and he ended up with a double-digit win. I have a feeling that is not what dcshungu meant, however.

Don't get your hopes too high, HRC is gonna be in for the long haul, Edwards to gonna be gone soon and Obama is gonna have to be a man and fight his own fight and we'll see if he can beat the Lady. I think not.