Politico's Mike Allen kicked off his influential Playbook email this morning with the following excerpt from the AP's analysis of its recent poll:
a stubborn wedge of people ... somehow, are still making up their minds about who should be president. One in seven, or 14 percent, can't decide or back a candidate but might switch, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll of likely voters released Friday. Who are they? They look a lot like the voters who've already locked onto a candidate, though they're more likely to be white and less likely to be liberal. And they disproportionately backed Hillary Rodham Clinton's failed run for the Democratic nomination.'
Overall, Obama led in the poll 51-43. And as political scientist Michael McDonald told the AP, voters who are still undecided at this late stage may not vote at all. But we could be hearing a lot more of this Hillary-nostalgia in coming days if polls tighten further, or if Obama fails to hit home runs in states like Indiana and Ohio. The important thing to remember is that whole other demographics, from young people to African Americans, are likely to turn out in greater numbers than they would have if Hillary had been the nominee. Just because today's undecided voters once supported Hillary, it doesn't mean that Hillary would have been a stronger general election candidate.
--Dana Goldstein
