US voters favour Democracts, but uneasy with Hillary

Opposition Democrats have entered the 2008 presidential election campaign with powerful political advantages but face a tough and unpredictable battle because of the vulnerabilities of front-runner Hillary Clinton and the Democratic-controlled Congress, a new poll shows.

While a 51 per cent majority gives her high marks for being "knowledgeable and experienced enough to handle the presidency," pluralities rate Clinton negatively on honesty, likeability and sharing their position on issues.

That, the poll shows, isn't hurting her nationally in the Democratic primary contest. Clinton leads with 47 per cent support to 25 per cent for Obama and 11 per cent for Edwards, who fell from 16 per cent in September.

The poll, conducted for the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, shows that Americans have turned sharply away from President George W Bush and toward domestic issues favoring his partisan adversaries.

Majorities believe the Iraq war can't be won and want most US troops withdrawn by the dawn of a new president's term in 2009.

But offsetting that demand for change in the presidential contest are reservations about Clinton's truthfulness and ideology, even as Americans applaud her experience and leadership qualities, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The result: She is in a virtual dead heat with leading Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani when the two are matched up.

The electorate's shifting agenda "does tilt the field against Republicans," said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who helps conduct the Journal/NBC survey.

And yet his Democratic counterpart, Peter Hart, said, "This is an exceptionally close election" less than a year before Election Day.

Clinton's rivals in both parties are moving to exploit the doubts revealed by the survey, which was conducted after last week's Democratic debate at which she faced accusations of evasiveness and double talk, the paper said.

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois used humour over the weekend, doffing a Halloween mask on the "Saturday Night Live" television programme and declaring, "I have nothing to hide."

Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina has attacked more sharply, challenging Clinton in Iowa to remain in "tell-the-truth mode all the time."

Edwards and Obama both run even against Giuliani, too, matching Clinton's standing even though they aren't as well known as she is.

But Obama would enter a general election with serious vulnerabilities of his own, since just 30 per cent of Americans rate him positively on having enough experience for the presidency and just 29 per cent rate him positively on "being a good commander in chief."

By 50 to 35 per cent, the poll shows, Americans prefer that a Democrat gets elected to succeed Bush next November. In a direct match-up of leading candidates, however, that margin shrinks to 46 per cent for Clinton and 45 per cent for Giuliani.

Among Republicans, Giuliani leads with 33 per cent; Sen. John McCain of Arizona runs second at 16 per cent.