Rasmussen: Fred Thompson leads Hillary, but trails Obama by double digits

[Mr. Morden]

Is this the first '08 national poll to show any Republican other than Giuliani and McCain leading one of the top three Dems (Clinton/Obama/Edwards)?  I don't remember any polls showing Gingrich or Romney leading any of those three.  The other Republicans are rarely included in these head-to-head general election matchups, but when they are, they don't tend to do very well.

[Mr. Morden]

This poll isn't unexpected; almost any Republican will get at least 45% of the vote in a poll against Hillary, due to the fact that most people have ingrained opinions about her and will vote for or against her regardless of the issues at hand.

But that's not the way most polls have been going though.  Giuliani and McCain do tend to do well against HRC, but the polls I've seen that pit her against Gingrich, Hagel, Romney etc. invariably have her winning, with the Republican candidate failing to reach 45%.  Like I said upthread, I think this may very well be the first '08 general election poll that has anyone other than Giuliani or McCain beating HRC.