This week, Rasmussen Reports dropped Al Gore from our list of contenders in polling on the Democratic Presidential nomination but it had little impact on the overall dynamic of the poll results.

Senator Hillary Clinton (D) remains in first place and now enjoys support from 37% of Likely Democratic Primary Voters nationwide. That’s up from 28% a week ago. The latest Rasmussen Reports Election 2008 poll shows Senator Barack Obama (D) still in second place, now with 26% support. Former Senator John Edwards (D) is now the top pick for 13%.

Clinton’s lead over Obama is a bit larger than it was in the previous two weeks, but a bit smaller than the two weeks before that.

In earlier polls, Gore consistently finished in fourth place with support near the 10% level. Now, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) is in fourth place with 4% support followed by Senator Joe Biden (D) at 3%.

Rasmussen Reports releases national polling data on the Democratic nomination process every Monday and on the Republican race each Tuesday. The current survey of 568 Likely Democratic Primary Voters was conducted February 19-22, 2007. The margin of sampling error was +/-4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack (D) dropped out of the race last week. He was included in polling up to that point and failed to reach the 1% level of support. Senator Chris Dodd (D) also failed to reach the single point mark.

While Clinton is still the Democratic frontrunner, polling last week shows her nine-points behind the Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani. Obama and Edwards also trail the former Mayor of New York City, but both are more competitive with Giuliani than Clinton.

Clinton is viewed favorably by 52% of Americans, Obama by 50% and Edwards by 49%. Richards is less well known and a plurality has no opinion of him one way or the other. Thirty-five percent (35%) have a favorable opinion of New Mexico’s Governor while 27% hold an unfavorable view. See our summary of favorability ratings and general election match-up results for all Democratic and Republican candidates.

Despite the fact that the frontrunners in the Democratic Party are a woman and an African-American, 60% of voters believe that the Democrats will end up nominating a white male as their Presidential candidate in 2008. Eight-out-of-ten Americans say they are willing to vote for a woman Presidential candidate and a similar percentage say the same about an African-American candidate. However, in each case, just over 50% believe their peers are likely to do the same. There is a significant difference of opinion on these questions by age. Just a third of senior citizens believe their peers would vote for a woman or an African-American.