Hillary has 22% Nationally as Independent

Rasmussen Reports is showing a close race between Obama and McCain. A recent poll showed Hillary doing much better than Obama against McCain. Rasmussen Reports also did some polling on third party canisates with some interesting results.

Rasmussen Reports™:
A separate survey found slightly different results when third-party candidates were mentioned by name. In a four-way race, Obama earns 42% of the vote, McCain 38%, Bob Barr 6% and Ralph Nader 4%. Given those options, 11% were undecided.

I know, I know, the Obamabots may see this as exciting news. Nader is kept below 4% and Barr gets about 6%, which will hurt McCain more, right? Not so fast, Barr gets about equal support from Democrats (5%) and Republicans (7%). As the old saying goes politics make strange bed fellows. Most of Nader’s support (8%) came from unaffiliated voters.

Rasmussen also decided to poll Hillary Clinton’s strength as an independent.

The survey also considered a match-up with Senator Hillary Clinton running as an Independent candidate. In that match-up, it’s McCain 32%, Obama 31%, Clinton 22%, Barr 3%, and Nader 3%. In that match-up, Obama wins 50% of the vote from Democrats while Clinton gets 35% and McCain 7%.

There is clearly a strong base of support that Hillary can build on. It also points out the high level of dissatisfaction Democrats have with Obama in the general election. It would be interesting to see how this would work out on a state by state basis.