Here is some very interesting comparison of the candidates, courtesy of the Rasmussen Reports.

Rasmussen released a report over the weekend which ranked the presidential hopefuls on two simple metrics. Percent of voters who would vote for them, and those that would vote against them. The finds are very interesting and don’t frankly, paint a good picture for the Democrats who only tow contenders are polarizing individuals.

The following table shows the breakdown:

As you can see all of the candidates, with the exception of McCain how more people lined up to vote against them than for them. Even in the case of McCain it is a slim margin. But unless something goes very wrong with the electoral collage, then popular vote says no democrat will be in the White House again this year.

Now I know that there will be some consolidation once the field of choices is narrowed down to two. None the less it seems to me that the larger group have issues with the two Democratic candidates. After all they are not, in my most humble opinion, real candidates.

The report makes some other good observations:

Thus, while the base of strong support has risen for both men in recent weeks, it’s risen only slightly for Obama. On the other hand, core opposition to McCain, the least of any candidate’s, is the same as in December; whereas strong opposition to Obama has jumped seven percentage points.

Lets face it, none of these candidates for president are in the category of first string players. People just find McCain less offensive - which quite a statement for the quality of his competition.

Rasmussen Markets data now shows McCain with a 93.7% chance to win the nomination and Huckabee has a 1.3% chance. On the Democratic side, the Markets give Obama a 81.8% chance to win the Democratic nomination while expectations for a Clinton victory are at 17.5%.

Rasmussen is basically saying what we already knew - it will be a McCain vs Obama race once the nominations are given.

Also Reporting:
American Pundit
Ace of Spades
Hot Air