Posted on 02/21/2005 8:32:45 PM PST by Libloather
Clinton's Popularity Up in State, Even Among Republicans
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Published: February 22, 2005
Remember Hillary Rodham Clinton and the conventional wisdom about how polarizing a figure she is? Well, think again.
Recent polls have shown that Mrs. Clinton, the junior senator from New York, may have turned a corner politically, sharply reducing the number of voters in the state who harbor negative views of her.
Pollsters say the change is remarkable for a woman who has long been shadowed by a seemingly implacable group of voters - commonly referred to as Hillary haters - who dislike her, no matter what she does, and who pose a potential obstacle to any presidential ambitions she may harbor.
A measure of how far Senator Clinton has come was on display Sunday when Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, said on "Meet the Press" that he thought Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat, would make a good president, although he said that he would support his party's nominee. She returned the compliment, saying when asked by the program's host, Tim Russert, that Senator McCain would be a good president.
The changing view of Mrs. Clinton coincides with a period following the November election in which she offered a series of speeches filled with references to faith and prayer, while putting less emphasis on polarizing social issues like gay marriage and abortion.
The result of these comments has been an emerging image of Senator Clinton that is far different from the caricature that Republicans have painted of her: that of a secular liberal whose stances are largely at odds with a public that they say is concerned about the nation's moral direction.
Political analysts say the themes Senator Clinton has emphasized - combined with the hard-working image she has sought to project - appear to be causing large numbers of voters to re-evaluate her in New York, although not nationally, where the number of people who disapprove of her is still high. In a Marist poll last fall, roughly 4 in 10 Americans had negative views of her.
Her progress appealing to once skeptical New Yorkers was illuminated by a New York Times poll released last week that showed that 21 percent of New Yorkers had an unfavorable opinion of how she is handling her job, down significantly from the 29 percent of voters who expressed similar sentiments in October 2002.
(In two recent back-to-back surveys, pollsters for Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Conn., also found a notable decline in the number of New York voters who expressed a negative view of Mrs. Clinton.)
At the same time, Senator Clinton's job approval rating has increased to 69 percent from 58 percent in October 2002, according to the Times poll. That is higher even than the 63 percent approval rating of Charles E. Schumer, the senior senator from New York who was re-elected last year to a second term with a record 71 percent of the vote and who is known for his attention to upstate concerns.
The new attitudes toward Mrs. Clinton may be forcing Republicans to reconsider how to deal with an opponent they had until now viewed as an enticing target because of the depth of negative feelings she inspires among large numbers of New York voters.
Independent political analysts say her strong standing may give pause to any big-name Republican thinking about challenging her in 2006, chief among them Rudolph W. Giuliani and Gov. George E. Pataki. In fact, a Quinnipiac poll released earlier this month found that Mrs. Clinton would defeat both Mr. Pataki and Mr. Giuliani in head-to-head contests.
"There isn't a long line of opponents forming to take her on in 2006," said Lee M. Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
But New York Republican leaders say that they are eager to challenge Senator Clinton, especially since Republicans from around the country will almost certainly provide plenty of money and other campaign support to defeat her, as they did in 2000.
New York Republicans also say that the senator has had a free ride so far and that her opponent in the campaign will have an easy time driving up her negative ratings - and halting her rise in the polls - by pointing out what they describe as her poor record of accomplishment and her liberal ideology.
The longer she stays away, the more pleased the state gets.
whoops... /sarcasm
LOL
See post 44
Isn't that what people said about bill the first time he ran for the White House?
The changing view of Mrs. Clinton coincides with a period following the November election in which she offered a series of speeches filled with references to faith and prayer, while putting less emphasis on polarizing social issues like gay marriage and abortion.
Really. Can people really be so supid to think she is really the person she is morphing into? Come on, people of America, please convince me you are not that dumb in 2008!
Share a little insight re: post# 41
The question is WHO will be the nominee in 08? I won't pull the lever for a liberal republican.
Do not rule out the possibility of a third party run, either.
Either way, trying to predict anything at this point is pretty much worthless....
They can't do it this time, the alternative media will be even MORE powerful in 2 years....just watch and laugh.
"Do not bring Bill Clinton election as counter argument since Clinton was elected in 1992 because of weakness of GHW Bush and the Perot factor"
You don't think she and Bill are already plotting a third-party candidate for 2008? Maybe all this border security rhetoric is custom-designed to split the Republican party, and draw in an anti-immigration, isolationist (anti neo-con) third party conservative candidate?
And, if the GOP nominates Giuliani, we can add in a socially-conservative, anti-abortion third party candidate. There's a lot of conservatives who will NEVER vote for a pro-choice candidate.
I am counting on the 2008 election looking a lot like 1992. The question is whether we can respond better, and also forestall some of the problems.
Yeah, baby.
She's been studying the "John Kerry Loser Playbook" of 2004 and has decided to head right of wherever Lurch leaned to the left... since she knows it FAILED!
But the horrible question is: will she SUCCEED????
Do you know who are the Republicans running in 2008?
Again since it is just a political move any Republican candidate will say he will put troops on the borders and he will be much more believable than Hillary Clinton.
I doubt very that putting troops on the borders will be an issue in 2008.
Who's rewarding them ? The demoRATS who sign them up to vote for a pack of Marlboros ?
LOL!
If only New York could elect a president.
All this says is that she has not screwed to pooch as a Senator yet.......yet..........yet....
Exactly.
to=the.....That's it...I quit posting for tonight. That is three times.
Excellent point my friend.
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