If Hillary is as unelectable as everyone here says she is, then the VP slot would be perfect for her, just like the Co-Presidency slot worked for her for 8 years. She gets what she wants while others take the heat.
Posted on 08/18/2003 8:54:16 AM PDT by bedolido
Even as the president’s approval drops back to pre-war levels and gloomy views on the economy continue, George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney (search) top a Democratic ticket of former Vice President Al Gore (search) and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton (search ) in a hypothetical matchup.
According to the latest FOX News national poll of registered voters, conducted August 12-13 by Opinion Dynamics Corporation, a Republican ticket of Bush and Cheney would beat a Gore-Clinton ticket by 50 percent to 39 percent. As both Gore and Clinton have said they will not run in 2004, this is an imaginary matchup of well-known Democrats against the incumbents.
Men are 20 points more likely to support the Bush-Cheney ticket, while women are more evenly divided between the two tickets (46 percent for Bush-Cheney and 42 percent for Gorje-Clinton). Fully 89 percent of Republicans say they would vote for their party’s ticket, compared to 78 percent of Democrats who say they would vote Gore-Clinton. Almost half of independents (48 percent) say they would vote Bush-Cheney, a third (32 percent) for the Democratic ticket, and 12 percent say “neither.”
Other than Gore’s running mate in the 2000 election, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (search), most of the announced 2004 Democratic candidates remain unknown to voters. Lieberman has the highest name recognition of the nine hopefuls, and even after being on the cover of two national magazines almost two-thirds (65 percent) of Americans have no opinion of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (search) (more than four in 10 say they have “never heard of” the candidate). However, Dean is making inroads — his name recognition improved the most among the Democratic slate and is up 11 points since June.
Those same magazine covers that Dean graced last week are now focused one of the newly announced Republican candidates in the California recall election Arnold Schwarzenegger, who not surprisingly has high name recognition and a 55 percent favorable rating (nationally).
And while President Bush’s 61 percent favorable rating is higher than even Schwarzenegger’s, today’s rating represents a five-point decline from two months ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com.edgesuite.net ...
Then how do you rectify that opinion with Gore's poor showing in this poll? If you mean Gore with anyone but Hillary, I don't really buy it. Hillary vs. Bush gets her to about 40% as I recall, so she's not putting a drag on Gore (IMHO). Obviously this is only one poll, but I think Gore should be faring better given the sympathy factor and his time out of the spotlight (thereby helping his weaknesses fade from memory).
I used to think Gore might still be somewhat of a threat to Dubya, but not anymore. And his decision not to run seems to support that.
However, he doesn't bring the same extremely high negatives that Hillary does. I think many conservatives who are torqued at Bush may stay home on election day if it is Gore who wouldn't stay home if it is Hillary. On the other hand, Dean cannot unite the party like Gore. So I see him, not Hillary, as the real wild card.
The good news is that the Clintons will not allow Gore to be the nominee again IF they think Bush is beatable.
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