I think she actually does have the Obama machine behind her. Early polls like this tend to pretty much reflect name recognition.
Buttegieg (sp?) appears to be the CIA candidate and is pretty clearly the brightest of the bunch, but I think he’ll end up tucked under Harris.
Of course, there’s a long, long ways to go. Even the year that McCain got it, he was nowhere in the polls for months. Similarly, Kerry.
When you're up against people like Beto O'Rourke, that isn't saying very much. I think the reason Buttigieg is being hyped up so much is that Democrats realized that there was no substance to O'Rourke even by their low standards, and needed to find a hip, young replacement to fill the manufactured hype niche fast.
I suppose that could be. The Democrats' political machine seems to have thrown Biden under the bus even before he declared his candidacy - that's why we're suddenly getting non-stop "#metoo"-type headlines about Biden nonstop now, as opposed to never in the past. This means that the DNC has some other pet establishment candidate who they want to promote. It won't be Bernie or Warren - they'll scare off Wall Street and Silicon Valley donors, so perhaps it will be Harris by default, unless some other favored hack (Hillary?) enters the race in the 11th hour.
I think [Harris] actually does have the Obama machine behind her. Early polls like this tend to pretty much reflect name recognition.