YOU LIKE ME, YOU REALLY LIKE ME!

In a survey by The Associated Press and Yahoo! News, Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani are considered the most likable of the presidential candidates.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats and Republicans alike have strong opinions about who has the best chance of capturing the presidency in 2008—Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, that is—but that's not necessarily the candidate they'd rather go bowling with, take along on a family vacation or even vote for.

Which candidate is the most likable? On the Republican side, Giuliani gets the nod, both from GOP voters and among voters overall. None of the Democratic candidates has a clear advantage among Democratic voters, with Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards running about even. But in a sheer popularity contest, pitting the most likable Democrat vs. the best-liked Republican, it would be Obama over Giuliani, 54 percent to 46 percent.

Voters CLAIM to put likability far down on the list of important qualities in a candidate.

They attach far more importance to being honest, ethical, decisive and strong.

That makes sense. That's as it should be.

What doesn't make sense is that members of her party consider Hillary to be superior to her Dem primary opponents in all the "important" categories.

Hillary as ethical? The Hillary of Whitewater, cattle futures, Norman Hsu, and Chinatown dishwashers???

That makes me wonder how informed the respondents of the survey really are.

...The AP-Yahoo! News survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks, also asked voters to shine the spotlight in the other direction, to evaluate some of their own qualities.

It turns out that supporters of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are the most likely to be happy. Huckabee has a relatively high proportion of support among evangelicals, who tend to be happier than most people.

Among Democrats, supporters of Obama and Edwards are more likely to say they are very happy than are Clinton's backers. Her supporters include more lower-income and less-educated voters, who tend to be less happy.

The voters do own up to some reservations about the age, sex and religion of certain candidates, but some also manage to swallow their concerns. Nearly 60 percent of 71-year-old John McCain's supporters say they have at least some reservations about supporting a candidate who is over 70. About 30 percent of Romney's supporters have qualms about voting for a Mormon. Fifteen percent of those who support thrice-married Giuliani have reservations about someone who is divorced.

On the Democratic side, 7 percent of Clinton's supporters report some reservations about voting for a woman.

These results are strange.

The support for the candidates seems somewhat shaky.

Nearly a third of Romney's supporters have "qualms about voting for a Mormon." With supporters like that, who needs enemies?

Close to 60 percent of McCain's backers have concerns about his age. Sixty percent!

Even some of Hillary's supporters aren't sure that voting for a woman is a good idea.

In the case of the Republicans, Giuliani's likability factor does translate to positive numbers for him on the "important" qualities. There's some consistency there.

However, on the Dem side, likable Obama doesn't surpass Hillary in what voters consider to be the important stuff.

In other words, even the Dems don't like Hillary, but they believe she's the candidate best qualified to be president.

I suspect the Hillary camp would blame her lower likability rating on gender. For a woman to take on the "all boys' club of presidential politics," she has to be a bitch.

I disagree. A woman can be highly qualified and likable.

Hillary isn't.