Where Do You Go If Your Candidate Doesn't Win?

That question was asked of Democrats to try and determine the depth of the division between the Clinton and Obama supporters. Politico has the details:

Some interesting numbers out of Pennsylvania today, courtesy of a new Franklin & Marshall poll. About 20 percent of both Obama and Clinton supporters say they would back McCain should their candidate not get the nomination. This is something I've heard time and again anecdotally — especially from Obama backers — but this is the first real evidence of such a possibility.

Of course, after the Dem candidate, party and allied interest groups define McCain (Bush III!) a portion of these folks are likely to come home.

The question:

If [FILL preferred candidate] does not win the Democratic nomination, who do
you think you will vote for in the November election? Will you vote for [fill other
candidate], John McCain, some other candidate, or will you probably not vote in the
November election?

Hillary Clinton supporters (n = 228)
53% Barack Obama
19% John McCain
5% Other
13% Won’t vote
10% Don’t know

Barack Obama supporters (n = 126)
60% Hillary Clinton
20% John McCain
3% Other
3% Won’t vote
14% Don’t know

The experts seem to think the McCain vote will drop as the campaign goes on, but if there's an ugly convention, and especially if Hillary gets the nod after Obama wins the most delegates, I think the experts will be wrong.