Wow, after reading all those arguments I finally get to reply. Alot of people make a lot of good cases as to whether a jounin could kick any genin's ass, so I'm going to throw my 2 cents in.

There is another example of a genin kicking a jounin's ass. Even though it was a crappy show, the Naruto Ova showed this "ultra" powerful jounin who got beat by Naruto and Sasuke. If you count the fact that Sasuke still had his original clothes and Naruto was able to gather Chakra from the Nine-tails that the "episode" fell after the 2nd exam, because Sakura's hair is short, but before the Itachi episode. There is a clear example of a jounin who even became "ultra" powerful and lost... aka: Leaf Jounin's are probably far more superior than other country's Jounins... or at least the main character. Either way, this shows an example. But for the sake of argument, let's throw this episode out... esp. since it sucked.

Chunin's are NOT stronger than all Genin. A Chunin just has the leadership ability and maturity to lead a squad. If you read all the manga, you'll see more examples as to how some Genin can be logically equal to some Jounin.

It seems that most everyone will agree that Itachi is a Jounin, and if that's the case then Haku is too. I'm not saying they are equal by far, but the case is that Zabuza and Kakashi were Jounin and they said Haku was better, hence Haku is at least Jounin Level. Just because he wasn't officially named a Jounin doesn't mean he wasn't one... Because if that's your case then Itachi never became a Jounin either. He fled while he was still an ANBU leader.

But in reality, let's look at the facts here... The main characters are NOT normal Genin. A NORMAL genin would most likely lose to a NORMAL jounin. But with the case of the main characters: Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, Gaara... all these guys probably could beat a Jounin. I don't think that they could beat Kakashi or the other Leaf Jounins, because most of them are genius themselves. It's one thing to have a lot of power but there's no good in all that power if you have no strategy or smarts about it. The reason Genins are Genins is because they lack the mental maturity to lead. If their rank was based soley off power, then why in the world would they constantly want to CALM DOWN in fights? You could have twice the Chakra, but it's useless if you can't even hit the enemy.

To sum it up, the main characters are a very talented group of Genin. Some of them may be on equal par as far as power with Jounin (Gaara and Naruto with their demon possesion), while some are equal as far as intellect (Shikamaru)... But being a Jounin is having and being able to utilize both. A powerful Genin could be a "stupid or careless" Jounin (assuming they are smarter or catches them off guard) and a Smart Genin could beat a "weak" Jounin (assuming the Genin was more powerful/more stamina).

Just what I think...