Nearly half of Democratic women (47%) say Barack Obama should have chosen Hillary Clinton for his running mate instead of Senator Joseph Biden as the former First Lady prepares to speak tonight at the Democratic National Convention. Thirty-nine percent (39%) disagree.

But a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that a sizable majority (57%) of Democratic women believe that Obama is the Democratic candidate who will do best against John McCain in the November election. See crosstabs by gender within party.

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Only 35% of Democratic men believe Hillary should be on the ticket with Obama while 56% say she should not be. Forty-six percent (46%) of all voters say no to Clinton as the veep choice versus 40% who favor her.

Similarly, 54% of likely Obama voters say she should not be his running mate, but 34% believe she should be. Interestingly, younger voters prefer Clinton on the ticket.

While Democrats overall by a 61% to 33% margin give Obama the nod over Clinton as the candidate best able to beat McCain, unaffiliated voters, perhaps the key bloc at play in this election cycle, prefer Clinton 48% to 33%.

Among all voters surveyed, 43% say Clinton would do better against the Republican candidate, while 41% prefer Obama, who this week is expected to become the first African-American nominated as the presidential candidate of a major political party.

Thirty-seven percent (37%) of voters say Clinton wants Obama to win the election, but 40% say she does not. Democrats by a more than two-to-one margin believe Clinton wants Obama to win. Unaffiliateds are more suspicious: They think Clinton does not want Obama to win 37% to 31%.

Nationally the Rasmussen Reports Daily Presidential Tracking Poll shows the race between McCain and Obama as neck-and neck.

Clinton, who captured hundreds of delegate votes in the march to the Democratic nomination, dropped out of the race in early June when Obama had secured enough delegates to win. But many of her supporters, eager to see the first woman nominated by a major party, reacted angrily to the decision, and the McCain campaign has already capitalized on that reaction with an ad this week highlighting a Clinton voter who is now voting for McCain.

In part to ensure that these voters stay in the fold, Obama agreed to allow Clinton’s name to be put into nomination Wednesday night at the convention.

In the new survey, again voters give the slight edge to Clinton when asked whether she will overshadow Obama at the convention. Forty-eight percent (48%) say that is at least somewhat likely, including 21% who say it is Very Likely. Forty-six percent (46%) say she isn’t likely to overshadow the party’s likely nominee, but only nine percent say it isn’t likely at all. These numbers have held steady from a similar survey last week.

Thirty-nine percent (39%) of Democrats think it is at least somewhat likely Clinton will overshadow Obama, but 57% disagree.

Clinton continues to get high marks for her conduct since quitting the race for the nomination on June 7, despite a great deal of reported behind-the-scenes intrigue over her speech at the convention and putting her name in nomination. Sixty percent (60%) of voters rate her conduct good or excellent, while only 10% characterize it as poor. Even 52% of Republicans give her good or excellent marks.

Only 34% of African-American voters feel that way, however, and 23% rate her conduct as poor.

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