HILLARY IN TROUBLE? – AT 8:33 A.M. ET:  It's hard to come to any other conclusion when you look at a series of polls that, yes, shows her leading in potential matchups with GOP presidential candidates, but not leading by any convincing amount.  From Hot Air:

Mitt Romney’s not running for President again, telling supporters that it’s time for the Republican Party to look to other leaders for its future. Democrats may wonder whether they have to tell Hillary Clinton the same thing. In a PPP poll taken this week, Hillary Clinton can’t get to 50% against any Republican challenger paired against her, even Romney:

The automated poll of nearly 900 registered voters, conducted last week by Public Policy Polling, found that 48 percent of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, compared to 43 percent who viewed the former secretary of State favorably.

While Clinton — the prospective favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination should she enter the race — holds leads over every major GOP candidate tested in the poll, she doesn’t break 50 percent against any, and some are well within striking distance. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker comes closest, with Clinton leading him by a margin of 45 percent to 42 percent (with 14 percent not sure who they’d vote for) – within the survey’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percent.

COMMENT:  And Hillary Clinton is far better known than any of the potential Republican presidential candidates.  We tend to forget that she never was all that popular, and lost the 2008 nomination to a young senator from Illinois named Barack Obama.

We can only imagine the numbers once a Scott Walker really starts to campaign.

And if Hillary should decline to run, the prospects for the Democrats are weaker still.

February 1,  2015