Poll: McCain, Giuliani would both beat Hillary

Survey shows Clinton, Kerry losing in hypothetical races

With three years to go until the next presidential election, potential Republican candidates for the presidency fare better than Democrats in a new poll by the Gallup Organization.

In hypothetical matchups, both Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani would defeat New York Sen. Hillary Clinton by a margin of 50 to 45 percent.

If Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry were the Democrats' nominee, the margin of victory for the GOP candidates is even greater, at 54 to 41 percent margins among registered voters.

Of the four figures Gallup asked about, Giuliani is rated most positively, with 64 percent of Americans saying they have a favorable opinion of him and only 19 percent with an unfavorable opinion. Clinton (53 percent) and McCain (51 percent) have similar favorable ratings, although Clinton is the much better-known figure (only 4 percent do not have an opinion of her, compared with 27 percent for McCain).

Clinton's unfavorable ratings (43 percent) are nearly twice as high as McCain's (22 percent).

Kerry is the only candidate of the four with higher unfavorables (48 percent) than favorables (42 percent). That reflects a significant shift from last fall, when Kerry averaged a 52 percent favorable rating and a 44 percent unfavorable rating in five October Gallup polls leading up to the presidential election.

At least a majority of Americans had viewed Kerry favorably following his surprise victory in the Iowa caucuses and continuing through Gallup's final pre-election poll.