SD: Obama 46%-Clinton 34%

Cross posted at Badlands Blue

The much awaited poll by Dakota Wesleyan University (jointly with the McGovern Center for Leadership and Public Service) is now available.  From this morning's Argus Leader:

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama leads New York Sen. Hillary Clinton by more than 10 percentage points among registered Democrats in South Dakota, according to an independent poll released Tuesday.

Obama led Clinton 46 percent to 34 percent in a poll conducted by Dakota Wesleyan University. However the results are still within the poll's margin of error, which is plus or minus 6 percent.

By the way, this poll is only of Democrats since independents are not allowed to vote in the Democratic primary.  If they could, according to Dakota Wesleyan's poll, "38 percent indicated they would vote for Obama, 29 percent for Clinton, 29 percent would not vote and 5 percent remained undecided."

South Dakota's primary is June 3, and David Kranz says  it gives the state a "slim, but still potentially meaningful" role in the Democratic nominating process.

Whatever happens on June 3, and whoever the nominee ends up being, Democrats have an uphill climb against John McCain in the general election in South Dakota this November:

In hypothetical matchups, McCain had 51 percent to Obama's 34 percent. Against Clinton, McCain had a 59 percent to 30 percent advantage.

What are the key issues for South Dakotans?  According to the new poll, "42 percent said the economy was the country’s most pressing problem, 21 percent said the war in Iraq, 10 percent said healthcare, and 5 percent said gas and fuel prices, 2 percent national debt, 1 percent terrorism and 18 percent said something else or did not respond."

We'll see what happens, but I think it's a fair statement to make that if Democrats are competitive at the presidential level in South Dakota this November, they're going to be competitive everywhere in the country.

UPDATE: I just noticed an interesting finding from the Dakota Wesleyan poll -- "In North Dakota, however, McCain and Obama appear to be in a statistical dead heat. The DWU Tiger Poll shows McCain with a slight lead over Obama, at 44 to 38 percent, but within the poll’s statewide margin of error..."  In contrast, McCain leads Clinton in North Dakota 53%-33%.