Is it bad if I think her being a woman also helps a lot? I mean breaking the glass ceiling to the absolute top is pretty important just to prove it possible, and I think that is appealing to a lot of people even if they tend to lean Republican.
Honestly if Sanders and Warren are both not even on the ballot, and it's between Hillary, Biden, and O'Malley where they all have the same positions anyway and only differ on who took what position first, I'd vote for Hillary in the primary on the glass ceiling fact alone.
This also helps. I think similar excitement over Obama being the first black president alerted people to his candidacy and turned out voters who otherwise were disinterested in politics.
Not in the way right-wingers whine that "Obama only won because he's black," if he were white he would have won easily given the fundamentals of the election. But people like to be a part of history.
And like with Obama, I'm sure there will be sexist dicks who vote
against Hillary purely because she's a woman. But those people would have likely voted GOP anyway.
Edit: New batch of polls from Fox News.
KS - Roberts up 2 (40-38) with Taylor in the mix, down 6 without him (42-48). Governor's race: Brownback down 4.
IA - Tie at 41-41.
NC - Hagan up 41-36.
LA - Landrieu losing 51-38 in runoff (what), only coming in second in the jungle primary (WHAT)
Aside from Louisiana everything looks believable. But their likely voter screen is balls - only people who've voted in 06, 08, 10, and 12 are included.