LOS ANGELES, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Republican Senator John McCain would beat Hillary Clinton if presidential election was held now, according to a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll.

    Given a choice between McCain and Clinton, half of those surveyed said they would vote for the Arizona Republican, compared with 36 percent for the former first lady.

    The poll showed that despite being viewed as a potential Democratic presidential candidate for the 2008 election, Clinton, in the eyes of many Democrats, is too polarizing a figure to win the White House.

    A potential problem for Clinton, on the other hand, is that voters already know so much about her. Almost all of those polled had a strong opinion of her, and many doubted that she could draw enough swing voters to win a general election, according to the poll.

    The poll showed that McCain holds appeal to independent voters. Half of the independents surveyed said they would back McCain, while 32 percent supported Clinton, with the rest undecided or naming someone else.

    But a significant segment of Republicans who call themselves conservatives - the base of the party - have an unfavorable opinion of McCain who was emerging as the Republican standard-bearer, according to the poll.

    In contrast, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican, received highly favorable marks across the party's ideological spectrum. Giuliani has not taken as many steps toward a presidential candidacy as McCain, and the poll did not measure how he would perform against Clinton.

    As for Democratic Senator Barack Obama, a charismatic African American who has gotten enormous attention since he began publicly musing about a presidential bid, remains obscure enough that 40 percent of the Democrats surveyed said they did not know enough about him to have an opinion on him.

    The poll indicated that Clinton's gender and Obama's race did not necessarily loom as big liabilities for them. Only 4 percent of registered voters said they would not vote for a woman for president; 3 percent said they would not vote for an African American.

    The findings come at a crucial time in the formation of the 2008 presidential field, which is expected to be crowded because neither party has an heir apparent, said the Los Angeles Times.

    The poll of 1,489 adults - including 1,342 registered voters - was conducted Friday through Monday and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.