ALAS, WE'RE GETTING BACK TO NORMAL

Remember all those polls last year that showed Generic Democrat with a double-digit lead over Generic Republican for president (while real Democrats didn't do quite as well)? Well, according to a new NPR poll, even Generic Democrat isn't kicking butt anymore.

From the audio report that aired this morning:

...STAN GREENBERG, POLLSTER: There's now a crystallization on the presidential level around real candidates, and there that's moved the generic ballot -- whether you'd vote for an unnamed candidate -- has made that closer.

MARA LIASSON, NPR: The generic ballot asks voters whether they'd vote for an unnamed Democratic or Republican candidate if the election were held today. In our past polls, Democrats have had a double-digit advantage here. But now that's gone. Democrats are only ahead by five points.

In head-to-head races with real names, McCain beats Clinton by 3 and Obama by 1. (Sigh.)

Obama ties McCain among independents. Clinton loses independents badly to McCain -- 58%-32%. But she does better among Democrats than Obama does. (Poll results here, poll highlights here; both are PDFs.)

The bottom line is that this is yet another poll that shows it's McCain's race to lose. Once again, the American electorate seems prepared to turn to Daddy for president.

Please, people, don't do this to me again.