The new Hotline/Diageo poll shows the Democratic race to be a close one nationwide, while John McCain has opened up a strong national lead — though the numbers were collected before the Michigan primary, and nobody knows how future primaries will ultimately affect the numbers:

Democrats:
Clinton 38%
Obama 35%
Edwards 15%

Republicans:
McCain 32%
Huckabee 17%
Romney 15%
Giuliani 12%
Thompson 7%

The general election match-ups also show that while any of the Democrats could beat most of the Republicans, Barack Obama is more electable than either Hillary Clinton or John Edwards — and it's not even close. John McCain is the most electable Republican, trouncing Edwards and narrowly edging Clinton, but loses to Obama in a statistical dead heat. Those numbers are available after the jump.

Generic Democrat 48%, Generic Republican 33%
Obama (D) 43%, McCain (R) 42%
McCain (R) 48%, Clinton (D) 45%
Obama (D) 54%, Huckabee (R) 31%
Clinton (D) 49%, Huckabee (R) 40%
Obama (D) 57%, Romney (R) 27%
Clinton (D) 50%, Romney (R) 39%
Obama (D) 56%, Giuliani (R) 34%
Clinton (D) 51%, Giuliani (R) 41%
Edwards (D) 51%, Giuliani (R) 31%
McCain (R) 48%, Edwards (D) 40%
Edwards (D) 48%, Huckabee (R) 33%
Edwards (D) 50%, Romney (R) 34%