AFP: It's as if the last seven years never happened: Hillary Clinton is the prohibitive early Democratic favourite in the White House race.   A Washington Post poll today had Clinton obliterating the potential Democratic field and showed she would handily dispatch scandal-dented Republican hopeful Chris Christie in a 2016 general election.        

Still, the fact that Clinton is leading polls at this early stage hardly means she'll burst through the glass ceiling in which she said she made 18 million cracks in the 2008 White House race.        

Clinton was the heavy early favourite for the Democratic nomination in 2008 -- until the phenom known as Barack Obama exploded into life just before voting started and snatched away the prize.

While there appear to be no rock star candidates hiding in the wings this time around, the lesson of 2008 is that apparent "inevitability" does not guarantee victory.        

Polls this early in a presidential race -- when no candidates are yet declared, though several are mulling runs -- are notoriously unreliable.         What is clear, though, is that if she does give it another go, any Democrat taking Clinton on could be in for a rough ride.        

According to the survey, the former secretary of state would trounce her closest possible rival, Vice President Joe Biden, in a primary race. She currently leds him 73 percent to 12 percent among Democrats and independents who lean Democratic.