Posted on 04/12/2006 2:34:47 PM PDT by neverdem
Suddenly, thankfully, it does not seem that Hillary Clinton is on an automatic trajectory to become the next Democratic nominee for president. Two recent polls suggest problems that may loom in her path. From New York state comes the latest John Zogby poll, forecasting a race for the Senate instead of a cakewalk. For the first time since GOP wannabe Jeanine Pirro dropped out of the race, polls indicate that New Yorkers hare having second thoughts about re-electing Hillary.
While the former first lady was leading her main opponent, John Spencer, 61-31 in Zogbys Jan. 13 poll, her lead is down to 54-33 in his survey of March 27. Zogby reflects increases in Hillarys negatives across the board among Democrats, Republicans and independents. He also shows a sharp drop in moderate and conservative support for Hillary, an indication that the shrill tone of her national attacks on the Bush administration and all things Republican is destroying the carefully cultivated bipartisan image she has sold to New York.
The drop in New York is especially interesting since Spencer has yet to wage any campaign. He has not advertised or been heavily covered by the left-leaning Empire State press corps. Hillary is dropping on her own.
For his part, Spencer is likely to get enough votes at the Republican state convention to stop his primary opponent, K.T. McFarland, from getting on the ballot. While she could petition her way on, that is a very hard task in New York, where one must get signatures in more than half of the counties. In some of these places, Republicans are hard to find.
And on the national level, a revealing insight comes from the Marist Poll of Feb. 22. The survey reported that Hillary finished a far-ahead first among her rivals for the Democratic nomination, getting 40 percent of the Democratic primary vote to former vice-presidential nominee John Edwardss 16 percent and Sen. John Kerrys 15 percent.
But, with Al Gore figured into the race, Hillarys vote share dropped to 33 percent, with the former vice president at 17 percent, Edwards at 16 percent and Kerry at 11 percent. A 33-17 lead over Gore sounds a lot more shaky than 40-16 over Edwards. (And remember, Gore has not even hinted at a candidacy. Once he does if he does his numbers are likely to increase rapidly.)
Gore turns Hillarys Left flank and would be able to use his past and present opposition to the war and hefty environmental record to attract liberals repelled by Hillarys off-again, on-again flirtation with centrism.
Democratic animosity toward the Bush administration, approaching an all time high, means that the 2008 primaries are likely to be a kind of audition to see which candidate would do the best against the Republicans. Hillary is suspect because of the way she polarizes the voters. She doesnt polarize Democrats they all love her but even the most enthusiastic of her base voters grasps that she is a red flag to independents and Republicans.
As for Gore, he has already proved that he can get more votes than the Republican. He just needs to get them in the right states this time. Gores popular-vote success is likely to play well when Democrats contemplate the Kerry debacle, just as Nixons narrow defeat in 1960 looked pretty good after the pasting Johnson gave Goldwater in 1964, good enough to give Nixon another chance.
The electability issue is the soft-core version of Hillary negatives, which could undermine her in 2008.
Meanwhile, Spencer can also run on a soft-core negative. Rather than have to attack Hillary frontally, he can point to her looming presidential candidacy, there for all to see with each days national speech, and note that he is the only candidate running for senator from New York who wants to be senator from New York.
When Hillary ran in 2000, few believed she would run for president. It was not an issue. Her gullible supporters believed that she was moving to New York so that she could become a senator, but it did not enter their minds that she only wanted to be a senator in order to become a president. Now that the second shoe is dropping, New York voters are obviously reassessing their view of Hillarys commitment to their state. And to be asked to vote for her reelection when she obviously will move heaven and earth not to have to serve out her term, may be too much for New Yorkers to put up with.
If Spencer can get the funding his standing in the polls warrants, he could be part of a one-two punch (with Al Gore providing the knockout) to stop a second Clinton presidency.
Who knows what Dick....Morris is taking?
But imagine if Condi Rice ran and won, what would all the race baiters, pimps and hustlers have to say and do? Would they have jobs? Would black people finally stop bitching and whining about "rights" and equality?
Somehow, I don't think so.
Let some Republican turn renegade and do a Ross Perot, and you'll see her win.
She's in way over her head on the national stage, and is much better suited to be a backroom spoke in a Chicago-type political machine.
Oh geez...
It might take a Hillary term to re-calibrate the party.
Rudy's Gift
Think BIGGEST, NEGATIVE TURNOUT EVER in a Presidential election.
EGADS!...Hillary shakes her booty and I loose my eyesight...Thanks alot!
You wouldn't vote for allen?
this is bad cuz he is usually wrong
his advice to candidates is usually good but his predictions are almost always wrong
What if the captions on news pictures got mixed up? Hillary recently said this at an immigration rally, It is so heartening to see you here, said Clinton. You are really here on behalf of what America means, Americas values, Americas hopes.
Now, use that quote to caption this pic...
It is so heartening to see you here, said Clinton. You are really here on behalf of what America means, Americas values, Americas hopes.
33-17 lead over Gore sounds a lot more shaky than 40-16 over Edwards
Only Morris could call a 33 to 17 percent blowout a 'shaky lead.'
Hillary is going to skate to victory in NY.
And the Clintons will roll over any opponents in the primary like a two dollar whore.
Certainly not in the primaries. The senate is NOT the place we ought to be going to find a decent candidate for the Presidency.
you nailed it.
Reccomendations? Specificaly, whom do you find a feasible winner while maintain a good conservative stance?
UNTIL you start counting the possible illegal alien votes..
Its fairly easy to get ID to register to vote on the street..
You don't remember Dick Morris being arrested with a Prostitute? His wife divorced him and all of HIS "dirty little toe-sucking" secrets came out. *SHIVER*
"While many Republicans believe that in the end Mrs Clinton will prove unelectable, the former White House adviser, Dick Morris, who fell out with the Clintons after it was revealed he had used prostitutes, said he believed that she could win in 2008."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/19/whillary19.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/19/ixworld.html
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