What “Negatives”?

It is clear that, at least at present, Hillary Clinton is the front runner in the Democratic primary election and, by extension, in the general election to be held next November.  Yet, many see doom in her so called “negatives”, people who, when polled, say the will not vote for her under any circumstances.  The conventional wisdom has been that, due to her polarizing nature and “baggage” from her husband’s tenure, Hillary Clinton would have more people unwilling to vote for her than the other, “fresher” candidates.However, some new polling performed by ABC News in later September, and reprinted below from PollingReport.com, shows a rather different scenario: one in which Ms. Clinton’s negatives have fallen over the past several months to levels below those of all the other major candidates with the exception of one, Barack Obama.  Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama also hold the top two positions in the “definitely would vote for” category.  Not at all a bad position for us Democrats.

(ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Sept. 27-30, 2007. N=1,114 adults nationwide.  Reprinted from PollingReport.com)