Last night Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Chris Dodd voted against the Iraq war supplemental.

Joe Biden, the only other Democratic Presidential candidate in the Senate, voted in favor of the bill issuing a statement saying that while he disagreed with the approach of the bill, "as long as we have troops on the frontlines, we must give them the equipment and protection they need."

Though antiwar groups were disappointed with the Democrats' 'capitulation' overall, they were pleased with their ability to influence those running for the party's nomination. "This bold stand by three of the four presidential candidates in the Senate won't soon be forgotten," said Eli Pariser, the executive director of MoveOn.org's PAC.

Pariser is speaking about the Democratic primary, of course, but if one of these Senators wins the nomination his comment that this vote "won't soon be forgotten" might very well apply to the general election as well - and not in a good way.

Take a look at yesterday's CBS News/New York Times poll. Yes, 63% of those surveyed (including 81% of Dems and 61% of Independents) said the United States should set a "timeline for withdrawal" in 2008.

But the following question asked whether Congress should block all funding of the troops, allow funding for the troops without conditions, or pursue a middle course that allows funding on the condition that the United States "sets benchmarks for progress and the Iraqi government are meeting those goals" - which is exactly what last night's bill did. Phrased that way, 69% of those surveyed were in favor of funding with benchmarks (including 73% of Democrats and 69% of Independents).

Look at it another way. Clinton, Obama, and Dodd just placed themselves on the short end of an 80-14 vote. And of the eleven who joined them in voting against the bill, three were Republicans (Burr, Coburn, and Enzi) who did so out of principle against pork. That leaves the three Democratic presidential hopefuls standing next to Russ Feingold, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Pat Leahy, Barbara Boxer, Sheldon Whitehouse, Ron Wyden, and socialist Bernie Sanders.

Again, this isn't a problem for the primary - in fact the vote was probably a political necessity for all three of them - but there's a good chance it may come back to haunt them in the general election. You can bet the Republican nominee will do his best to portray this vote as out of the mainstream and rejecting of a sensible course of action on Iraq that supported the troops.