As TIME"s person of the year. I thought it was my duty to bring this story to your attention yesterday. Well, it's hitting the walls now. Newday at least covers the numbers:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton beats John McCain and ties Rudolph Giuliani in a new Newsweek national poll, a stunning counterpoint to recent surveys showing the former first lady trailing the GOP's dueling presidential frontrunners. The poll, taken earlier this month, shows Clinton besting McCain 50 to 43 percent among 1,000 registered voters nationwide. It also showed her in a dead heat with McCain among independents, a group that has proven stubbornly resistant to her centrist message.

Atrios has this:

The Newsweek numbers on the head-to-head presidential matchups were not publicized by the magazine. They appeared in a press release on the magazine's Web site but weren't included in a Clinton-Barack Obama cover story, which focused on whether Americans were receptive to black or female presidential candidates. A Newsweek editor said the poll matchups were not pertinent to the cover story.

"Right. The poll numbers regarding how receptive voters were to Clinton and Obama were not pertinent to a cover story "which focused on whether Americans were receptive to black or female presidential candidates."

I've been informed that the The Clinton team is asking Newsweek for an explanation as to why they omitted the polling data which is essential to the central theme of their story. It makes absolutely no sense to me. This data seems to be perfect for Jonathan Alter's story. There must be a reason why it wasn't included. Stay tuned...