HORSING AROUND. The horserace surveys don't mean much this far out, but it's worth noting that, over the past month, the big-name Democrats have opened a real lead over the big name Republicans. A new CNN poll has both Hillary Clinton and Al Gore beating John McCain and Rudy Giuliani (Obama loses to both candidates, Mitt Romney loses to everybody, and no other match-ups were tested). More generically, 52 percent of voters say they'll definitely or probably vote for the Democrat, while only 32 percent are oriented towards the GOP (and only 10 percent are "definite" Republican votes!). Again, it's early, salt heavily, etc. But for now, the GOP is suffering from a serious image crisis. --Ezra Klein
