Hillary winning -- at a Gallup?

As some may know, Gallup has been doing daily national racking polls recently which charted the remarkable Obama comeback after New Hampshire to a near-tie. Suddenly, this past Tuesday (before results from the votes that day were known), Clinton surged to a whopping and shocking 13% lead. Gallup has just reported today that this a shrunk a little bit, but only to 11%, at 51% to 40%.

How is this possible since the two candidates ended in a dead heat on Tuesday? Gallup points out that turnout nationally this week was only (despite the ballyhoo over enthusiasm) about 30%. The pollsters, of course, sample all possible voters. Gallup found that, indeed, the most likely voters before Super Tuesday did split 50/50.

But here's the question: If Obama barely splits with Hillary in a primary setup, is his standing actually much weaker today when you judge the entire Democratic (as shown by these polls) -- and U.S. -- voting age populace? And is that a reason for concern in a general election?

That's a lot to ponder, but I would also add that this may, again, line up with my minority opinion (as it were) that there is a racial element to all this: That there is a much higher number of people still unwilling to vote for a black man than the pundits will admit. Yes, Obama has won the hearts and minds of a great number of whites, but is there a ceiling there -- and has it shown up already in those states (with large black populations) where he has done poorly? Why have his best showings been in caucus states where people have to take a public stand -- and those who may have race-based sentiment don't want to show up? (See my post down the page a bit for more.) Anyway, I could well be wrong, but it's worth considering....