So ... How Far Behind is Alvin Greene in the South Carolina Senate Race?

Things are not looking up for Alvin Greene, the Democrat's come-from-nowhere Senate candidate in South Carolina.

After Greene, an unemployed military veteran, walked away with almost 60 percent of the vote in the state's June 8 primary -- a feat he accomplished without any sign of having campaigned -- Democrats bemoaned this twist of fate, even though Greene's opponent, former judge Vic Rawl, was given no real chance to make a competitive race against Republican incumbent Jim DeMint.

But if there needed to be one more voice of doom, it comes from Rasmussen Reports. In a poll conducted July 29, Rasmussen found DeMint running ahead of Greene by 62 percent to 20 percent with 7 percent preferring some other candidate and 10 percent undecided.

Which is a lot of ground to make up.

There is one bright spot, of sorts, for Greene. Given all the publicity he received for his improbable victory, only 12 percent of voters say they don't know enough to be sure of their opinion of him, a percentage that is several times better than many major candidates in other states. The downside is that 70 percent have an unfavorable opinion of him, with 51 percent in the very unfavorable category.

Only 46 percent of Democrats say they are supporting him, but the disillusioned seemed to be going more to the "undecided" or "some other candidate" columns than they are to DeMint, who gets 14 percent of Democratic votes.

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