I promised myself I’d take a break from writing about Chuck Hagel, but this caught my eye:

Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) leads Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel (R) by 16 percentage points in the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. The Election 2008 poll, part of a series looking at all potential match-ups, shows Obama attracting 50% of the vote to Hagel’s 34%.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) also leads Hagel, but her eight-point advantage is not as commanding as Obama’s. A Clinton-Hagel match shows the Democrat on top 48% to 40%.

Hagel, despite his high profile on the Sunday talk shows and nightly news, is still relatively unknown among the general public. His numbers against Clinton and Obama actually compare quite favorably to Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who trails Obama 50-36%, and Clinton 51-41%.

To my knowledge, this is the first poll that measured Hagel’s standing among the general electorate. There’s still no indication if he will run or not, but the numbers seem to argue that he’d be just as viable as any other Republican (depending on how viable any Republican is by 2008). It pokes a few holes in the “electability” argument against either Obama or Clinton, though, as they both do consistently well in the national polls.