Rasmussen: Hillary Clinton leads both Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney by 3

[Tender Branson]

Hillary Clinton (D) - 47%
Fred Thompson (R) - 44%

Hillary Clinton (D) - 47%
Mitt Romney (R) - 44%
 
Romney has proven to be a surprisingly effective fundraiser and is getting better known to voters these days. But only 37% view him favorably, while 38% view him unfavorably.

Fred Thompson has similar favorables to Romney—39%. However, a large number of potential voters don’t yet venture an opinion on him. Just 27% view the TV star unfavorably at this time. NBC recently ordered up another season of "Law and Order," but creator Dick Wolf says he hasn't been told yet whether Senator Thompson will continue to star in it.

Hillary Clinton's favorable rating remains more or less balanced by her unfavorable rating: 50% view her favorably, 49% unfavorably. Many more have a Very Unfavorable (35%) than Very Favorable (23%) view. Her favorable ratings have been pretty stable over the last several months.

http://rasmussenreports.com

[Tender Branson]

My analysis:

The increase in name recognition does somehow benefit Romney, who went from an 8% deficit against Clinton in March (50-41) to a 3% deficit in May (47-44).

His favorable image increased from 32% to 37%, his unfavorable from 37% to 38%.

Yet the increase in name recognition didn´t help Thompson, who was ahead of Clinton by 1% in March and now trails by 3%.

His favorable image increased from 36% to 39%, his unfavorable from 23% to 27%.

[Verily]

Romney also performs well against Clinton simply because a lot of people will vote for anyone but Clinton. This, more than anything else, is why he comes close to Clinton but gets stomped by Obama and Edwards.

[Mr. Morden]

Romney also performs well against Clinton simply because a lot of people will vote for anyone but Clinton. This, more than anything else, is why he comes close to Clinton but gets stomped by Obama and Edwards.

Yet, despite the large anyone-but-Clinton vote, most polls have still shown Clinton beating Romney by double digits:

link

This is, I think, the first poll ever to show Romney within 3 of Clinton.  Though you're right that Edwards and Obama tend to do even better against Romney than Clinton does....just as they do better against both Giuliani and McCain.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just goes to show how pathetic the current Democratic field truly is.

[agcatter]

50 - 49 Hillary favorable - unfavorable

Hate her or love her - no one is on the fence with Hillary.  Not sure any candidate has ever gone into an election (18 months before the election no less) with this kind of welded in cement opinions of a candidate.  Uncharted territory.....

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Hillary's favorable/unfavorable ratings aren't as bad as I expected, especially when you consider that unfavorable includes many leftists who would suck it up and vote for her (myself included)

[Eraserhead]

Hillary sucks...only three points ahead of friggin' Romney...Jeez.