Polls showing Barack Obama as more likely than Hillary Clinton to beat John McCain in a matchup this fall have never made much sense to me. I’ve always seen Clinton as a bigger threat to McCain because of her more moderate record and her vote for the war. Yet these polls have proliferated in the media and on the Internet for months now. What makes Clinton a tougher general election rival for McCain? She’s a known, moderate quantity. She’s been about as fully vetted as any candidate for any office, ever. Her vote for the Iraq invasion will help her with middle America in a general election, although it obviously hurt her with left-leaning Democratic caucusgoers and primary voters.
