Beat the Heat

Clinton's White House hopes hit by poll
Wednesday, June 21, 2006, The Guardian

Almost half of Americans could never bring themselves to vote for Hillary Clinton in a presidential election, according to an opinion poll published yesterday which shows how much of a struggle the former first lady faces.

The CNN poll will alarm the Clinton camp after finding that 47% of those questioned would "definitely not vote for" the New York senator - a negative score that towers over the two Republicans most favoured to oppose her in the 2008 election. Only 30% of respondents said the same about Rudy Giuliani, and 34% about John McCain.

"This is the kind of number that only goes up as campaign controversies accumulate," said Larry Sabato, the director of the Centre for Politics at the University of Virginia. "It would mean she'd have to run a near-perfect campaign in the best possible circumstances in order to win.