Opinion: Alabama: Not quite a swing state yet

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Democrats fervently believe the wind is at their backs in the 2008 presidential campaign, regardless of whether they settle on Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton as the presidential nominee. And the historic natures of their respective candidacies, party activists assert, will bring flocks of first-time voters to the polls in November, rewriting political equations across the country.

But not everywhere, as a recent poll in Alabama usefully reminds us.

Conducted for the Mobile Press-Register and the University of South Alabama, the survey found that presumed Republican nominee John McCain would annihilate either Obama or Clinton in the state.

The two Democrats and their surrogates no doubt will keep arguing over which of them would run best against the GOP ticket, but in Alabama the point is moot: the new poll shows McCain crushing Obama by 28 percentage points, Clinton by 29 points.

You can read more about the poll here.

-- Don Frederick