Has any non-incumbent candidate ever started out this strong, this early out?
In September 1999, Bush led Gore 56 to 39, and Bill Bradley 57 to 37.
Maybe I'm becoming beyond hackish at this point, but I don't think the situations are that similar because everyone in America already has an opinion on Hillary and is very familiar with her. Bush certainly wasn't in that position in 1999.
Everyone knew who Gore was though, and they were soundly rejecting him. Bush had the added advantage of his name, and while he wasn't in as solid of a place name-wise as Hillary, he was pretty solid by mid-late 1999.
