According to The Telegraph in the UK, a leaked Democratic poll shows the concern some in the Democratic party have over a Hillary Clinton presidential nomination.

A leaked Democratic poll has suggested that Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner in the race for the party’s presidential nomination, could lose the 2008 election because of her “very polarised image”.

The survey by the Democratic pollsters Lake Research indicated that both Mrs Clinton and Barack Obama, second in the Democratic race, trailed Rudy Giuliani, the Republican front runner, in 31 swing congressional districts.

Former President Bill Clinton whispers to his wife Senator Hillary Clinton
The private memo, leaked to The Washington Post, painted what researchers described as a “sobering picture” for Democrats who believe that President George W Bush’s disastrous favourability numbers almost guarantee they will capture the White House next year.

All party preference polls show that Democrats are much more popular than Republicans. But when the names of individual candidates are used, the gap narrows considerably.

“The images of the two early [Democratic] favourites are part of the problem,” the memo said.

The leaked poll found that Mr Giuliani, a centrist Republican with liberal stances on issues such as abortion and gay rights, leads Mrs Clinton by 49 per cent to 39 per cent in the swing districts.

Senator Clinton’s negatives are high right now, and history shows as the campaign goes on the negatives of the candidates only go higher.

Almost half the American electorate right now say they would not vote for Hillary Clinton under any circumstances. That’s not a good starting position.

I have thought for some time that if she is the nominee it will not only help elect a Republican president but it will help restore some lost seats in both chambers of Congress.

I’m not a political pundit, but this is just my gut feeling.

The next candidate to her is Barack Obama and he just doesn’t seem to have what it takes yet to become president. I think his ambition got in the way too soon and he should have given himself time to learn the issues better. The fact that he has been absent from voting on important issues the past couple of days in spite of the fact he is at the Senate and able to vote also speaks volumes. He’s afraid to take a stand on some controversial issues.

John Edwards, I think, is not even a consideration and the rest of the field are just in it for the sake of pride. It’s between Clinton and Obama and neither seems to have a winning message.