Poll shows Gore entry might help Clinton

A new poll shows former Vice President Al Gore’s entry into the Democratic presidential race might not have such a large impact on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) after all. In fact, it might help to further solidify her frontrunner status.

{mosads}The InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion poll, which was conducted nationwide Friday evening after Gore was named a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change, shows Gore taking heavily from undecided voters and the other candidates – not Clinton.

Clinton registers 43 percent in the Gore-inclusive poll, which is a similar number to her take in polls without Gore. And her 20-30 point lead holds steady, as Gore takes second place with 15 percent, while Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) take 13 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

Gore has not ruled out a presidential bid but has not provided a strong indication that he will run either.

“The bottom line is that a Gore candidacy, at this stage, seems unlikely given the fact that the best thing that can happen to Hillary Clinton is another man, even one with a Nobel Prize, getting into the race and dividing up the anti-Clinton vote rather than taking votes away from her,” InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery said in the Southern Political Report.

Towery noted that Gore largely took from the other male candidates when he was included in much of the early polling on the race as well, and that the Nobel Prize has not changed that.