McCain Beats Obama in Massachusetts?

Mitt Romney isn’t likely to win many popularity contests in Massachusetts, which makes the findings about him a new Survey USA/WBZ poll none too shocking. When pitted against several Democratic front runners, the former governor loses every time. That’s not the really interesting revelation, however. That would be the lack of support for Barack Obama.

According to the poll, in an election between John McCain and Obama, pro-war McCain would win the bluest state by 3 percent. The hypothetical win isn’t a sure thing by any means—the margin of error and number of undecided voters could swing it either way—but losing Massachusetts would be like not getting a trophy in the non-competitive soccer league for Obama.

Not only would Obama outright lose to McCain, he fares worse against the front-running Republicans than does New York senator Hillary Clinton. Here are the percentages.

Clinton (D) 54%, Giuliani (R) 40%
Clinton (D) 59%, Romney (R) 35%
Clinton (D) 61%, Huckabee (R) 31%
Clinton (D) 50%, McCain (R) 45%

Obama (D) 46%, Giuliani (R) 44%
Obama (D) 54%, Romney (R) 37%
Obama (D) 57%, Huckabee (R) 27%
McCain (R) 47%, Obama (D) 44%

The rhetoric about Obama’s lack of experience must really be working on people if Massachusetts voters would rather see hawkish McCain in the Oval Office than Obama. Granted this is one poll, but is anyone else surprised by this?