N.Y. Poll: Hillary Clinton maintains her lead over Barack Obama, 48-23

John McCain now leads Rudy Giuliani, 36-24, in the former mayor's home state of New York, according to a new Siena poll. Hillary Clinton maintains her lead over Barack Obama, 48-23

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani trails Senator John McCain by 12 points among Republicans in the upcoming New York presidential primary and Senator Hillary Clinton continues to have a commanding lead over Senator Barack Obama in the Democratic primary, according to a new Siena (College) Research Institute poll of registered voters released today.

“Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton still has a strong home field advantage, maintaining a two-to-one lead over Barack Obama,” Greenberg said. “While he has picked up considerable support with African- and Caribbean-American Democrats, Obama still trails Clinton 46-36 percent among black Democrats, and Clinton has a 50-18 percent lead with white Democrats. Hillary leads by at least 30 points with voters 35 and older, however, Obama leads 40-38 percent with Democrats younger than 35 years of age.”

Clinton leads the primary with 48 percent, followed by Obama at 23 percent, and former Senator John Edwards at 10 percent. Nineteen percent of Democrats are still undecided. Clinton has at least 47 percent support in each of the three regions of the state. Clinton is viewed favorably by 60 percent of voters and unfavorably by 35 percent, her strongest results since January 2007. Obama has a comparable 57-28 percent favorable rating. Among Democrats, however, Clinton has an 80-17 percent favorability rating, compared to Obama’s 63-23 percent rating.

In hypothetical general election match-ups, Clinton’s lead over Giuliani, 56-34 percent, is the largest ever in a Siena New York poll. She leads McCain by a 53-39 percent margin. Obama leads Giuliani 53-35 percent and he has a small 44-42 percent lead over McCain. Adding Mayor Michael Bloomberg as an independent does not weaken Clinton’s lead. She gets 46 percent to 23 percent each for Giuliani and Bloomberg. And in another three way contest, Clinton gets 44 percent, to 27 percent for McCain and 22 percent for Bloomberg.

“With nine months until the November election, Hillary is in a strong position to keep New York in the ‘blue’ column regardless of who her opponent is or opponents are,” Greenberg said. “However, if it turns into a McCain vs. Obama match-up with no home court advantage, for the moment, New York is a jump ball.” More HERE

The 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will also be marked this year.

“As we commemorate Dr. King’s life today, on the holiday created in his honor, it is interesting to note that voters are very divided – 48 percent positive, 49 percent negative – on the state of race relations in New York State today,” Greenberg said. “Only three percent of voters describe race relations as excellent, with 45 percent saying good. On the negative side, 36 percent call race relations fair, with 13 percent saying poor. African American voters are most negative, with 40 percent saying fair and 30 percent saying poor. While it is encouraging that young people are a little more optimistic about the state of race relations (55-43 percent), it is disappointing that no demographic group rises above that 55 percent mark.”

AAPP: I guess I will just keep on blogging about Obama, Clinton and the other candidates,

Update:

A whole bunch of people are pissed off with how Bill Clinton has been acting out, and showing the racial side of his ignorance.

Newsweek reports there was a heated exchange when Bill Clinton called Ted Kennedy, the Massachusetts senator and still one of the most influential figures in the party. The magazine reported that Kennedy told Clinton he bore some of the responsibility for making race an issue in the campaign. Kennedy's office says he is making no endorsement "at this time", amid fears in Hillary Clinton's campaign team that he is now leaning towards Obama because of her husband's behavior - More HERE.