Oh My: Hillary out in front

Wh-wh-what???

It looks like people just don't like the Republicans more than they don't like Obama. You can take this with a grain of salt - liberal Time magazine finds that Hillary polls better better than Obama, better than the GOP, pretty much better than everyone. Via USA Today

People can't help but wonder what might happen if Hillary Rodham Clinton ran again for president.

A new Time magazine poll shows Clinton easily defeating the major Republican candidates, were she somehow to become the 2012 Democratic nominee for president.

Clinton leads Mitt Romney, 55% to 38%; Rick Perry, 58% to 32%; and Herman Cain, 56% to 34%, among likely voters in a general election.

(Time magazine notes, "The same poll found that President Obama would edge Romney by just 46% to 43%, Perry by 50% to 38% and Cain by 49% to 37% among likely voters." Clinton's leads are bigger.)

That may be worrisome for the GOP for 2012 but it shouldn't be.  This reflects probably more regret on the part of many liberals at what could have been rather than as a plan for 2012.

(1)  Time is a liberal  publication and poll results can be skewed based on how questions are asked. 

(2)  Hillary isn't running and if she were, there would be a lot of blood on the Democrat side of the ledger.  Either as a Democrat usurper or as a third party candidate, she does more damage to Obama than to the right.  Hillary is probably much more interested in 2016. 

(3)  The Time poll has a number of GOP candidates all being led by Obama. Significantly.   That is out of step with other polls that have the races closer and out of step with polls indicating Generic Republican beating Obama.  Once we know who generic is, the numbers for the specific candidate will exceed that of Obama.  That is, barring an economic miracle.