Poised to jump ship?

The potential for large crossover votes in the presidential election doesn’t just affect the Democratic party (see post below), though that’s the main focus of the media right now.

A new poll finds a large number of Democrats plan to vote for John McCain should their favorite candidate fail to become the party’s nominee. The poling data is encouraging for pro-life advocates concerned about Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the White House and appointing judges to keep abortion legal 35 more years.

A March 7-22 Gallup poll found 28 percent of Clinton supporters will vote for McCain if Obama is the nominee and 19 percent of Obama backers will support McCain if Clinton wins.

But while they’re handicapping the chances for Sens. Obama and Clinton to keep their own electorate in place and prevent them from crossing over to Sen. John McCain, turns out the Republicans have to be concerned about that same problem.

It found 11 percent of Republicans said they would vote for the Democratic candidate or a third-party candidate next fall if McCain does not choose a vice president who is considerably more conservative than him.

Speaking of predictions…it’s going to be a hot summer.