...polling data provided by Gallup that everyone is talking about, both on "the street", and in Superdelegate circles, party elders...by EVERYONE but Mark Penn and his sorry, desperate gang of folks seeking additional billable hours is this:

Print E-mail March 31, 2008
Dems, Reps Agree: Obama Tougher Opponent for McCainPerceived as having better chance than Clinton of winning in NovemberUSA Democrats Election 2008 Republicans Americas Northern America by Jeffrey M. Jones

PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Panel survey finds a majority of both Republicans and Democrats saying Barack Obama has a better chance than Hillary Clinton of defeating Republican John McCain in the November presidential election.

The survey was conducted March 24-27, interviewing a nationally representative sample of 1,005 Gallup Panel members. Democrats were asked whether Clinton or Obama has the better chance of defeating McCain in November:

59% say Obama does; 30% say Clinton.

Republicans were asked whether McCain has a better chance of defeating Clinton or Obama on Election Day.

64% say McCain has a better chance of beating Clinton, compared with only 22% choosing Obama, meaning Republicans view Obama as the more formidable candidate.

Before anyone starts suggesting that this is made up: http://www.gallup.com/poll/105904/Dems-R eps-Agree-Obama-Tougher-Opponent-McCain. aspx

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All of this data explains why Limbaugh, and the rest of the knuckle-dragging ilk is propping up Hillary at every turn, and why see this phenomenon:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080401/ap_o n_el_pr/vote_switching;_ylt=AryU44YA9Oqi NlO2MhdN79xh24cA

Clinton-Obama race spurs party switches By JULIA SILVERMAN, Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. - Matthew Buckingham, a stay-at-home father in Portland's suburbs and lifelong Republican, is fired up about voting for Sen. John McCain in November.

But on May 20, the date of Oregon's unexpectedly consequential presidential primary, Buckingham's choice for the primary is still up in the air: Should it be Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, or Sen. Barack Obama?

Some renegade conservatives will admit to switching in order to drag out the Democratic primary as long as possible in the hope of bruising both candidates along the way.

Talk radio hostess Victoria Taft, a familiar Republican voice in the Democratic-leaning Pacific Northwest, said that even in her wildest dreams, she never imagined urging her listeners to vote for Clinton.

But these days, Taft is firmly on the New York senator's bandwagon, along with national conservative talk radio heavyweights like Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham...In Oregon alone, in the past seven weeks, nearly 10,000 voters have refiled as Democrats, more than 1 percent of the state's 764,000 registered Democrats. More than 3,500 of them were Republicans; almost all of the rest had been nonaffiliated voters.

In Pennsylvania, where the primary is set for April 22, the Democrats have registered a staggering 235,000 new voters since last fall, pushing their numbers to more than 4.1 million for the first time. In West Virginia, which votes on May 13, the increase has come in the form of a swell in nonaffiliated voters, said Democratic Party executive director Tom Vogel, after the Democratic primary was opened to independents for the first time in recent history.

"We are sure there are Republicans who are switching to vote in our primary, whether they honestly want to vote or if they have more malicious purposes to try to get the candidate of their choice to run against," Vogel said.

Elections officials in two other late-voting states with closed primaries, North Carolina and South Dakota, said there was so far no evidence of widespread party switching there. And in Kentucky, where the primary is scheduled for May 20, there won't be any chance for party-hoppers, thanks to a state law specifically designed to prevent so-called "party-raiding."

In Ohio and Texas, the two key states widely acknowledged to have kept Clinton's presidential bid alive when she won their March 4 primaries, Republicans and independents voted for Clinton and Obama in roughly equal numbers, helping to solidify her wins.

That was a departure from previous states with "open primaries," like Virginia and Missouri, where anyone can vote for any candidate despite their affiliation, in which Obama had won handily among Republicans and independents.

Nick Shapiro, Obama's communications director in Oregon, said that if an organized effort to strategically cast conservative votes for Clinton did exist, it was a sign that "conservative Republicans are worried that Barack Obama can unite this country, and will get support from not only the Democrats, but independents and Republicans and propel him into the White House."

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Do you want more evidence, O constant reader that BOTH democrats and Republicans agree that Obama is the stronger GE opponent?  Look no furhter than:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/2 9/politics/main3979266.shtml

Which states, "...With the Democratic battle continuing, the GOP is getting a head start on the general election planning. The Republican National Committee and various surrogate operations have been kicking into high gear over recent weeks, raising money and laying out organizational muscle for the battle to come. Undoubtedly a luxury, such advantages will do little to stem the overall tide running against the party.

McCain alone now represents the party's best chance to hold onto any hope of avoiding a complete blowout in November. While a "generic" Republican candidate is swamped in the polls by a Democrat, McCain fares much better when his name is inserted.

Universally, Hillary Clinton is seen as the best candidate for Republicans to run against. She has the highest negative ratings of any of the three remaining candidates. And, at this point, her unlikely nomination would almost certainly rip the very fabric of the Democratic Party's coalition.

But while some believe Barack Obama to be almost invincible in a general election matchup, McCain is holding his ground. The most recent CBS News poll shows him within five points of Obama and trailing Clinton by just two. More importantly, McCain leads among independent voters, leading Clinton among that group by 11 points and beating Obama by eight.

Campaign 2008 is shaping up to be a contest of personalities as much as party or policy. The Democrat will be a historic candidate, either the first black or woman nominee of a major party. And everything is going their way - eight years of Republican rule, a struggling economy, a war and uncertainty about the direction of the country.

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So, the questipon becomes...what is going to happen?  DO any of really think that this sort of thing is lost on the Superdelegates and well-educated democratic voters?  I think not, which is why ever since Super Tuesday (or as Mark Penn may have called it, the end of the campaign, when I collect my bonus...payable [snark] perhaps in donuts) that Obama has been adding Superdelegates like gangbusters and HRC has picked up a few to moderate a few defections.  This also why Obama keeps on raising mone hand over fist, and HRC can't seem to keep up with the bills, including nearly 300K she owes for her salaried employee's health care costs, which presumably these days, includes a LOT of Rx Xanax.

The second question becomes, at least to the HRC folks out there who think that it is A-OK that the GOP is propping up your candidate on FOX, on the EIB network, etc....

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!

These are the same people who called Chelsea names when the Clintons took over in 1992.  The same people who worked tirelessly to unsuccessfully destroy Bill (and Hillary), going so far as to suggest that she had Vince Foster & Ron Brown killed.  The same people who undid Al Gore in 2000.  The same people who want to overturn Roe V. Wade, and maintain the status quo.  

Just think for a moment.  Rather than accepting, rather blindly the idea that these people have somehow seen the light and truly think Hillary a reasonable option as a force for unity..think again.  These people have demonstrated in the ugliest and bitterest means possible, that they only want to demean and destroy the Clintons.  THAT IS ALL THEY HAVE EVER DONE.  

They want to prop her up so that they can WIN in Novemeber, and USE her as the vehicle for the defeat of the Democrats in an election that is otherwise a cakewalk for the stronger democratic nominee!

Look, I am not going to be one of those people who suggests she get out on any other timetable than her own.  As I have said often (without getting any credit for it, save once from Texas Darlin') given Obama's meteoric rise..aided by a terrible Clinton campaign and a sometimes friendly media...that is the price he must pay.  ANY OTHER candidate would be expected to get out, but we owe Hillary and Bill the chance to do what they think is best.

Given the data and Super-delegate movmement, even they can't keep this up...especially if the fund spigot starts running even drier than it has.

However, I am also not going to give HRC and her folks a free ride on making wild, desperate claims that undermine their own credibility and value to the body politic...specifically:

1) That Obama doesn't want people to vote, and as such is unamerican.  HE HAS NOT gone out and told her to drop out.  He has in fact done the contrary. Before anyone whines about his surrogates and what THEY say...be aware that Hillary's surrogates have said plenty of things that she dare not too.

2) Obama is a racist.  If I read just one more Diary that suggest he is Wallace, or worse, I swear to the Lord himself, I will do everything in my limited power to make the diarist of such repugnant and loathesome BS miserable here.  Barack Obama LOVES his country and his countrymen.  Just as Hillary does.

It is shameful and ill-becoming of intelligent, reasonable people (which rules out SOME of you of course) to continually act like the people we have been compaling about for a decade.  It saddens and shocks me EVERY time I see a diary that calls into question Obama's honor and integrity just as it does whne some Obama goon does it to Hillary.

Grow UP!

To Sum:  

Gallup, setting aside the horserace that is in Obama's favor for the last week, shows someting even MORE POWERFUL...by 2-1, democrats and republican AGREE that Obama is the stronger candiate, and has the best chance of besting John McCain.

The GOP knows this and continues to send in their footsoldiers to help Hillary

HRC campaign and her supporters seem to embrace this, conveniently forgetting for the moment just with whom they are accepting help from.

I won't be a jackass and call for her to get out as some have, but at the same time I will not tolerate GOP-Troll-Rovian attacks on the character and spirit of the likely, and almost presumptive Democratic Nominee any longer.  WE ALL NEED to GROW UP.