At least that is what you might conclude from last weekend’s Rasmussen poll, which showed that John McCain had less core opposition than Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama:

Barack Obama has the same number who will definitely vote for him (as McCain) — 34%. But, more people are committed to voting against him than McCain. Forty-three percent (43%) say they will definitely reject him at the ballot box. For 18%, their support depends on his opponent.

However, the poll shows a different picture among unaffiliated voters.  Among that group, McCain’s for/against numbers are 28%/31%, while Obama’s are 34%/34%.  McCain’s core support drops and the margin of core opposition drops to within the margin of error.

Ed Morrissey, who apparently pays for Rasmussen’s premium service, adds some details:

The crosstabs show a few surprises. McCain actually does slightly better among younger voters (54%) than Obama (51%), and much better among seniors (44%, 24% for Obama). He does better in the “Other” and “White” ethnic categories, but Obama hasn’t locked up as much of the black vote as he’ll need. Only 60% say they will definitely vote for him, while 19% say they will definitely vote against him. McCain gets 9% of the black vote — about what Republicans normally get — but 37% will wait to see who runs against him, and another 8% aren’t sure.

It would certainly be good news if McCain could hold his own with the youth vote, but I quite frankly do not buy the numbers on the black vote.  When votes are tallied, Obama has consistently outperformed the polling numbers for the black vote.  It is also a bit suspicious that 19% say they will definitely vote against Obama, while only 9% say they will vote for McCain.  Who is picking up the other 10% of the black vote?  Ron Paul?

Obama may not be magically unifying right now, but he is doing better than the topline numbers from Rasmussen suggest.