DEMOCRATS, PLEASE STOP MEASURING THE WHITE HOUSE DRAPES

NPR has a new poll out, and it's just like so many other polls these days: the results suggest a wholesale rejection of Republicanism ... until the presidential front-runners for '08 are matched up.

First, the bad news for the GOP:

...Sixty-eight percent say the country is on the wrong track, while only 23 percent say it's heading in the right direction.

... "The overall mood is the bleakest I've ever seen," [co-pollster Stan] Greenberg says. "In our polling, it's worse than 1992 when [President Bill] Clinton came in. The country's in a change mood -- in a very frustrated, angry change mood."

So how strong is the mood for change?

Greenberg points to the generic presidential ballot question. Among likely voters, 49 percent would select the Democratic candidate and 36 percent the Republican candidate if the election were held today.

Then we get down to specific candidates, and the Republican clouds develop a silver lining:

But when the names of actual candidates were plugged into the question -- in this case the two national frontrunners -- the spread narrows dramatically. Democrat Hillary Clinton leads Republican Rudolph Giuliani by 3 percentage points -- 47 percent to 44 percent.

I'm going to keep pointing out polls like this until more people figure out what's going on: This presidential race is not over. It's very much up for grabs.