The Donkey In The Room
It just seemed wrong to use elephant in this context. The Telegraph is reporting on a leaked poll performed by Lake Research, a Democratic pollster, that indicates that Hillary! Clinton might cause real problems if she wins the nomination. Enough so that most Democrats won't talk about it and the few that are are scared out of their socks.
A leaked Democratic poll has suggested that Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner in the race for the party's presidential nomination, could lose the 2008 election because of her "very polarised image".
The survey by the Democratic pollsters Lake Research indicated that both Mrs Clinton and Barack Obama, second in the Democratic race, trailed Rudy Giuliani, the Republican front runner, in 31 swing congressional districts.
The private memo, leaked to The Washington Post, painted what researchers described as a "sobering picture" for Democrats who believe that President George W Bush's disastrous favourability numbers almost guarantee they will capture the White House next year.
All party preference polls show that Democrats are much more popular than Republicans. But when the names of individual candidates are used, the gap narrows considerably.
"The images of the two early [Democratic] favourites are part of the problem," the memo said.
The leaked poll found that Mr Giuliani, a centrist Republican with liberal stances on issues such as abortion and gay rights, leads Mrs Clinton by 49 per cent to 39 per cent in the swing districts.
Ten points is an enormous difference and a genuine potential disaster for the Democrats. The media, for the most part pretty firmly in the tank for Democrats, is trying to paint a picture of inevitability to a Democratic victory in 2008. Results like this indicate that they may just be whistling past a graveyard. Last night the Democratic candidates could not give assurances that the US would be out of Iraq but did assure America that ever higher taxes are coming. They may be overplaying their hand. Badly.
By feeblemind, Thursday, 27 September , 2007 @ 10:23 am
That sounds plausible enough, but the repubs are such inept campaigners that I have little confidence that they can take advantage.
By mockinbird, Thursday, 27 September , 2007 @ 12:59 pm
Hillary has a polarizing image?
In our capitalist country, the only capitalist thing she has ever done is trade cattle futures once; she did it the one time amazingly well, then no more.
Why?????
Recently, her two main general sources of campaign funds have been exposed to be shady, deceitful and possibly criminal.
Why?????