HIGH NEGATIVES

Well, this is why I get gloomy about '08: a new Mason-Dixon poll says 52% of voters wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton, and the most recent Fox poll says Hillary is absolutely blowing away her primary rivals (with Gore: Clinton 42%, Obama 19%, Gore 14%, Edwards 10%; without Gore: Clinton 47%, Obama 21%, Edwards 13%). Oy -- it's the perfect storm.

But that Mason-Dixon poll has one amusing bit of data: As a McClatchy story notes,

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, was second in the can't-stand-'em category, with 46 percent saying they wouldn't consider voting for him....

Romney struggled most with women: 50.9 percent said they wouldn't consider voting for him, while 49.1 said they would.

Really? Mr. Handsome Hunky Manly Man is having trouble with female voters?

Maybe Romney isn't really attractive to women -- maybe it's just that men think he's attractive to women, because he's trying so hard. Maybe women actually see him for what he is -- a posturing phony (appearance-wise and politically).

The biggest ray of hope I see for '08 is that Romney's win-the-early-states strategy just might work. I hope so, because Giuliani and Thompson have very high "might vote" numbers and low "would never vote" numbers (though Giuliani's negatives are going up in the Fox poll -- more, more!), whereas Romney seems wonderfully beatable.

(Via Democratic Underground -- where there's a lot of negative feeling about Hillary -- and Taegan Goddard's Political Wire.)