Hillary Clinton Emerges Unscathed From This Week’s Democratic Debate

On Tuesday, at the eighth presidential debate among Democrats, front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton came under withering fire from her top rivals, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards. But the attacks didn’t appear to do much damage, with her lead for the party’s nomination unchanged, according to the latest Newsweek Poll.

Almost exactly a year before Election Day, Clinton is also the favorite to win the White House-if only by a very small margin.

The New York senator gets 44 percent of the overall Democratic vote, compared to 24 percent for Obama (down a point since Newsweek’s August poll) and 12 percent for Edwards (down two points). She is the first choice of 45 percent of self-identified Democrats (compared with 39 percent of Democratic “leaners”). She also trounces Obama among Democratic female voters (48 to 19 percent) and enjoys a marginal lead among male Democratic voters (38 to 32 percent). Obama runs better among younger Democratic voters and minorities.

Interestingly, this is shaping up to be an election where there is no single overriding issue that concerns voters. The economy and jobs actually come before the war in Iraq (22 to 19 percent), followed by health care (17 percent) and terrorism and national security (15 percent). Voters today are split on whether the situation is worsening in Iraq (29 percent) or improving (26 percent.) In August, 41 percent held the negative opinion; 16 percent thought the situation was improving.

The poll was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

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