Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton trails five top Republican presidential contenders in general election match-ups, a drop in support from this summer, according to a poll released on Monday.

Clinton's top Democratic rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, still lead Republicans in hypothetical match-ups ahead of the November 4, 2008, presidential election, the survey by Zogby Interactive showed.

Clinton, a New York senator who has been at the top of the Democratic pack in national polls in the 2008 race, trails Republican candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mike Huckabee by three to five percentage points in the direct matches.

My thoughts are, of course, GOOD, but I'll probably have to eat those words when she wins.

All the expats in China that I've met, without exception, are Obama people. I'm told that Obama leads all candidates with worldwide expats, which isn't that surprising. His campaign has been very active in China - conference calls for those disposed to donation from Obama's wife.

I don't know that expats are indicative of the general population. By and large they seem to be liberal and the preferred conversation is how embarrassing it is that everyone hates us and that the Bush has trashed the word America abroad.

I disagree wholeheartedly. No one in China seems to care about Bush; visa applications in China alone have been increasing at a rate of 30% per year over the past 5 years. Worldwide visa applications have increased (I'm too lazy to do the minimal amount of research it would take to confirm the percentage). None of this suggests that respect for America or Americans has greatly diminished under Bush's watch. Perhaps world leaders think less of us, but other than Howard, whose demise caught me completely off guard, I don't really care.

Why would anyone worry about what the leadership of Italy or Bhutan thinks of us? Iran, Syria? I hope they are scared ^%$@#less of us, which they won't be if we pull out of Iraq.

I don't have a feel for how Clinton would conduct her foreign policy. But we can only hope she'd be better than her husband.