Republicans are growing more confident about running against Barack Obama and now have no preference as to which Democrat their candidate will run against in the fall.

Just 37% of Republican voters nationwide now believe the Democratic frontrunner would be the tougher candidate against John McCain. That’s down from 54% earlier this month. An essentially equal number, 35%, now believe Hillary Clinton would be the stronger Democrat in November. That’s up from 20%.

Unaffiliated voters are also evenly divided on this question. Forty percent (40%) see Obama as the most electable Democrat while 36% say the same about Clinton. Earlier in April, unaffiliated voters saw Obama as the bigger challenge to McCain.

While Republicans and unaffiliated voters are less likely to see Obama as the stronger general election candidate, attitudes among Democrats remain unchanged. By a 51% to 37% margin, Democrats believe Obama will do better in November.

Overall, among all voters, 44% say Obama would be the stronger candidate and 36% say Clinton would be stronger.

Related survey data shows that 34% of Democrats nationwide say it is time for Clinton to drop out of the race. Twenty-two percent (22%) say the same about Obama.

Nationally, McCain is essentially even with both Democratic candidates in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

It is not possible to determine which Democrat is actually more electable at this time. Clinton is better known and it is likely that a campaign involving her would be close and resemble the last couple of elections in many ways. Obama is less well-known and could do significantly better or significantly worse than Clinton depending upon how the campaign unfolds.

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