Polls!
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | John McCain — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Initially, at least, things look good for John McCain:
As he emerges from a sometimes- bitter primary campaign, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain poses a stiff challenge to either of his potential Democratic opponents in the general election, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
The findings underscore the difficulties ahead for Democrats as they hope to retake the White House during a time of war, with voters giving McCain far higher marks when it comes to experience, fighting terrorism and dealing with the situation in Iraq.
Both Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have made ending America's involvement in the war a centerpiece of their campaigns. And even though a clear majority of those polled said the war was not worth waging, about half of registered voters said McCain -- a Vietnam vet who has supported the Bush administration's military strategy -- was better able to deal with Iraq.
In head-to-head contests, the poll found, McCain leads Clinton by 6 percentage points (46% to 40%) and Obama by 2 points (44% to 42%). Neither lead is commanding given that the survey, conducted Feb. 21-25, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The Arizona senator is viewed favorably by 61% of all registered voters, including a plurality of Democrats.
The survey showed that McCain's potential advantages extend even to domestic issues, where he is considered to be most vulnerable. Even though McCain has joked about his lack of expertise on economic issues, voters picked him over Obama, 42% to 34%, as being best able to handle the economy. However, Clinton led McCain on that issue, 43% to 34%.
"I just think he's older, he's more experienced, and he's got the betterment of the country in mind," said Robert Fear, 79, a registered Democrat from Newton, Ill., who said he planned to support McCain in November.
Most interesting. Despite all of the Obamania, McCain is holding his own. It's obviously too early to call anything but Republicans certainly should take some heart from this data.
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Polls! 8 Comments (0 topical, 8 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
He needs to be a better candidate, dammit!
Yesterday, he uttered the E word("experience"). Is he not paying attention? People don't want "e". They want "c"(change).
Let's just say, for sake of argument, that McCain and his advisors are not as dumb as they appear so far. Why not beat Obama at his own game and steal the CHANGE! mantle? As Rush Limbaugh rightly pointed out that Obama might have diagnosed the correct disease but then prescribed the wrong medicine. After all, his policy prescriptions are all just warmed up New Deal and Great Society big government programs.
If I were McCain, I would be saying, "This is not change. This has all been tried before, both in this country and in Europe. It has been proven to be a failure. Real change would be to lower taxes. Real change would be to significantly REDUCE the size of government. Real change would be to move to market based healthcare solutions, lowering costs for everybody. Real change would be to begin the 4-5 generations that weaning Americans off of reliance on Social Security is going to take. etc.etc."
Do we really want to emulate the policies of France? I doubt it. My fear all along is that McCain is not clever or articulate enough to make this case, two qualities that he is going to need in this fight.
Spartan, McCain has said this and says it all the time. When he wins in Ohio and Texas, he'll make another speech like he did when he won the Patomic primaries. He said our nation had to guard against the "elequent but empty" calls for change that are really nothing more that the failed policies of the past that basically trust government more than the American People. He'll do this again and again on the stump. He's gonna have to keep campaigning though, even after next week. He needs to get into the local markets, where the local news, covers him.
McCain has already been drawing clear distinctions between the kind of change he will bring and the kind of change Obama will bring. Frankly, I've been impressed with his campaigning thus far. He is totally willing to attack Obama directly on policy and philosophy, while being careful to not indulge in personal attacks - which is how it should be done.
For a 71 year old man, McCain is a pretty capable campaigniner, surprisingly.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
He's done this before. Not just as a popular Senator in his home state - comparatively easy - but he's seen the long knives of a Presidential campaign and knows both how to wield them and dodge them.
He also beat a large field of contenders for nomination, and other than Fred, most of them ran pretty vigorous campaigns.
Frankly, this is what I expected from McCain when I voted for him in Florida's primary.
I voted early in the Florida primary. Find out who and why.
We have Diebold.
____
CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
I voted early in the Florida primary. Find out who and why.
Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early
Don't be holding a drink by your keyboard or monitor, though.
Has anyone started taking a look at the state by state polls to see what they say with regards to the EC vote?
Obviously this would be more telling then the overall national polls.