I'm feeling pretty so-so about the 2008 elections. Why? Well, I like Barack Obama a lot, but then there was that fracas with his comments about Pakistan. I like John Edwards a lot too, but his campaign doesn't seem to be catching fire.
And then there's Hillary Clinton. NOT excited by her, to put it mildly, but this air of inevitability seems to be coalescing around her campaign. I don't think she could win. I think too many people have made up their minds about her. And frankly, I care more about getting a good president in office than electing the first woman president just for the sake of electing the first woman president, which, I sometimes get the impression, is what people are getting excited about.
And now I have some backup for my impressions:
Sen. Hillary Clinton is by far the most popular presidential candidate among her own party’s voters, but has among the lowest overall favorable ratings of the leading candidates. In sharp contrast, the front-running Republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani, evokes relatively modest enthusiasm from the GOP base, but is as broadly popular with all voters as any candidate in either party.The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Aug. 1-18 among 3,002 adults, finds that 55% of voters who offer an opinion of Clinton express a favorable view of her, while 45% have an unfavorable opinion. Other leading presidential candidates, including Clinton’s Democratic rival Barack Obama (64%), have much higher overall favorability ratings.
Yet Clinton is highly popular with her own Democratic base. Nearly nine-in-ten Democratic voters (88%) who offered an opinion of Clinton express a positive view – with 38% saying they have a very favorable opinion. That is the highest percentage that any of the seven 2008 candidates tested – Democrats or Republicans – receives from their parties’ voters.
Can I just ask? WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!?! Was getting this close to victory just too scary for you?
(Mind you, I'm one to talk. I did support Howard Dean the last time around. OTOH, the "surefire winner" John Kerry wasn't...)
