Obama Leads Edwards, Clinton in Blogger Poll

For the first time in the Democratic 2008 race for the White House, Sen. Barack Obama leads former Sen. John Edwards in top blog-community MyDD's monthly poll of readers. And Sen Hillary Clinton has unexpectedly tanked to 5th among 10 candidates.

In past polls, John Edwards led all 2008 Democratic contenders, often by a double-digit margin, trailed by Obama and Clinton.

While MyDD's Chris Bowers concedes that the poll is not scientific, he notes, "It only includes 811 votes, but this has not been stuffed in any way. Considering the size of most polls, 811 is actually a decent sample."

Some results of MyDD's February Reader Straw Poll are:

Readers' 1st choice candidate for 2008
Barack Obama - 34.0%
John Edwards - 28.6%
Wesley Clark - 9.0%
Bill Richardson - 5.9%
Hillary Clinton - 4.1%
Dennis Kucinich - 2.7%
All others were less than 1.0%

When MyDD readers were asked to rank their first and second choices, the results were:

Readers' 1st+2nd choice candidates for 2008
Barack Obama - 57.8%
John Edwards - 55.7%
Bill Richardson - 21.5%
Wesley Clark - 20.6%
Hillary Clinton - 11.1%
Dennis Kucinich - 6.2%

Conventional Wisdom at Mid-February 2007
As of mid-February 2007, conventional wisdom regarding Democratic candidates in the 2008 race for the presidential nominatons is: Obama rising, probably due to his tireless campaigning in 2007; Edwards fading some, due to his blogger-gate fiasco and to his recent ill-informed remarks on Iran; and Hillary's candidacy is in free-fall over her lack of a coherent stance on the Iraq War.

And retired Army General Wesley Clark and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson are both threatening to break into the top-tier of competitive 2008 Democratic candidates... which makes sense, since both are well-regarded and qualified to be President.

Or to be superlative vice-presidential candidates.

For complete straw poll results...including the fascinating Last Choice results... see MyDD Feburary Straw Poll Results

Recommended Reading
Obama in 2008 Info Center at About.com Liberal Politics
Richardson in 2008 Info Center at About.com Liberal Politics
Clark in 2008 Info Center at About.com Liberal Politics