Clinton leads Republicans in swing states

The leading Republican presidential contenders are acting as if Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee, most recently at Tuesday's debate, when both Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney went after her.

But a new poll shows Clinton beating all the top-tier Republicans in three pivotal states -- Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania -- that will have a huge say in who is the next president, just as they have since 1964.

In Quinnipiac University's Swing State Poll released today, Clinton appears to increase her edge over Giuliani, the Republican front-runner in national polls, in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup.

Clinton leads Giuliani 46 percent to 43 percent in Florida, 46 percent to 40 percent in Ohio, and 48 percent to 42 percent in Pennsylvania.

In hypothetical matchups, she would also win against Arizona Senator John McCain, former Massachusetts Governor Romney, and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson.

The poll also shows that Clinton is widening her lead in the three states over her closest Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, that most of her supporters are not likely to change their minds, and that many Democrats believe she has the nomination locked up.

"The candidates who trail Sen. Clinton and hope that they can pry voters away from her should wake up and smell the coffee," Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.