"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton runs best overall against leading Republican White House contenders in three critical swing states, Colorado, Iowa and Virginia..."

"... but U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is in a virtual tie with her in Colorado and Virginia, according to a Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll released today. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ties her in Virginia, the largest of the three, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is in a virtual tie in Colorado."

According to a new Quinnipiac poll.

ADDED: In the details — PDF — you can see the significance of the question "Is your opinion of [candidate name] favorable, unfavorable or haven't you heard enough about him?" Few people say they haven't heard enough about Hillary, but "haven't heard enough" answers for the Republicans are, in each case, in each of the 3 states, above 20%. The "haven't heard enough" answers are (by far) highest in the case of Scott Walker: 54% in Colorado, 55% in Iowa, and 57% in Virginia. That means that the vigorous shaping of opinion that is happening right now is going to be especially important for Walker, and monitoring mainstream media manipulations — e.g., Gail Collins's notorious "eraser" column — is crucial.

AND: The poll asked 2 good questions about Hillary: "Does [the fact that her husband served as President] make you more likely to support Hillary Clinton for president, less likely, or does it make no difference?" and "Does [Hillary Clinton would be the first female president] make you more likely to support Hillary Clinton for president, less likely, or does it make no difference?" The "no difference" answers had an overwhelming majority for both questions, in all 3 states. On the first question, "less likely" beat out "more likely" in all 3 states — 15/24 (CO), 15/18 (IA), 16/21 (VA). On the second question "more likely" exceeded "less likely," in all 3 states, but not by much — 15/11 (CO), 12/10 (IA), 14/9 (VA). Of course, the questions weren't set up to weigh the importance of the factor. I could see finding "first woman President" of some weight, but not much.