If it's a hopeful vision that voters want in 2008, as pollster John Zogby believes, then today's entry into the presidential race by rookie Illinois Sen. Barack Obama makes sense. In fact, he might prove to be a Hillary killer. In his new poll, Zogby asked likely voters which former president they thought the major 2008 presidential candidates were most like. Zogby told me that Obama did very well in the comparisons to John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. Despite Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's enormous advantage in name recognition, Obama beat her in the Lincoln comparison by 1 percentage point and more than doubled Clinton in the Kennedy comparison. Even Republicans and independents, when asked which presidential candidate was the most Kennedyesque, chose Obama.
"Youthful vigor," says Zogby, "has the best crossover appeal, and if that's the case, then we're looking at Barack Obama" as the Democratic nominee.
But let's not give up yet on the Clinton-Obama ticket that Republicans say scares them. All Democrats need to do is edit the ticket to Obama-Clinton.
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