The New Washington Post and Newsweek Polls: Good News for Hillary; Bad News for Mitt and Fred

    As we've noted before, national polls at this point have little predictive value but they do affect perceptions on the ground a bit in Iowa and New Hampshire. Thus two new polls this weekend that show Hillary ahead of Giuliani nationally will help quiet any discontent brewing against her front-runnership, since one of the main threats to her candidacy among Democrats is the fear that she can't win a general election.
    On the GOP side, the news is that while Giuliani trails by a manageable margin (4 points), Thompson and Romney get blown out in a landslide and McCain doesn't do much better. If the perception takes hold among GOP voters that Fred and Mitt are general election losers, that, in turn, will hurt their efforts and help Rudy.