Saturday, September 02, 2006
The Road To Washington - Sept. 2, 2006
Here at the PTF offices, we receive most of the major weekly news publications, and one of the features that I regularly read is the Washington Whispers column in U.S. News and World Report.
While the rest of the blogosphere was reporting on last week's Whispers story regarding Bush's infatuation with farts, there was another story that largely went unnoticed.
Zogby ran a poll which questioned likely primary voters about potential candidates running for President in 2008 - but they didn't provide those who were questioned with names. Instead, they only provided biographies and resumes. So, taking the telegenics and media hype away from each of them how did they fare?
If you're a poll geek like I am, you'll probably find the results as fascinating as I found them.
According to the poll, the results were as follows:
DEMOCRATS
1. Mark Warner..................................14.8%
2. Wesley Clark..................................14.2%
3. Russ Feingold.................................12.2%
4. Evan Bayh......................................11.1%
5. John Edwards................................10.4%
6. Hillary Clinton................................5.6%
7. Bill Richardson................................5.3%
8. former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel.......4.9%
9. John Kerry......................................4.9%
10. Tom Vilsack...................................3.0%
11. Joe Biden.......................................2.8%
REPUBLICANS
1. Newt Gingrich................................21.4%
2. John McCain.................................13.3%
3. Rudy Giuliani.................................11.2%
4. Tom Tancredo.................................9.9%
5. Chuck Hagel....................................6.1%
6. Mike Huckabee................................5.8%
7. Bill Frist...........................................5.6%
8. George Allen....................................4.9%
9. Sam Brownback...............................4.3%
10. Mitt Romney...................................3.8%
11. George Pataki..................................2.8%
Some thoughts based on these results:
* Keep in mind that this poll evens out the playing ground a bit, in that it doesn't rely on name recognition at all, but simply takes a snapshot of where likely primary voters stand on various issues at this point in time, almost two years out.
* That being said, who the hell is former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel??? And how bad does it suck to be John Kerry, Tom Vilsack, or Joe Biden and finish lower than Mike Gravel???
* Raise your hands if you're frightened at how high Tom Tancredo finishes in this "issues-oriented" poll?
* Hillary Clinton finishes in SIXTH place. Not a "close" sixth place, either. She's solidly behind the five candidates in front of her. This is a HUGE red flag if you ask me. If she finishes that far back on the issues, imagine what the Rove and the Republicans will do to her in a general election campaign?
* I'm also quite surprised to see a moderate Republican like Chuck Hagel finishing as high as he does for the Republicans. The same can be said about Rudy Giuliani. Remember... this is a poll taken WITHOUT name recognition, and conventional wisdom has been that a pro-choice Republican wouldn't ever become the Republican candidate in '08.
* Candidates who finish higher than I might have expected include Wesley Clark, Russ Feingold (everyone says he's too liberal to run, but maybe this proves otherwise), and Evan Bayh for the Democrats. On the Republican side, I'd say Tancredo, Hagel, and Giuliani were the surprises.
* Finishing lower than I might have expected - Dems: John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry (he might as well just kiss it good-bye right now). Repubs: George Allen and Mitt Romney.
* Finishing right where they belong - Joe Biden, Joe Biden, and Joe Biden.
* No Al Gore on this list, no Barack Obama, and no Condaleeza Rice - very interesting.
I'll be interested to see if Zogby continues this type of polling as the election gets closer - I think I'm a big fan of the idea behind the poll.
Tags: White House, President, 2008, elections, Democrats, Republicans, Zogby, poll
Posted by FleshPresser at 7:07 PM /
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Here at the PTF offices, we receive most of the major weekly news publications, and one of the features that I regularly read is the Washington Whispers column in U.S. News and World Report.
Some thoughts based on these results:
* I'm also quite surprised to see a moderate Republican like Chuck Hagel finishing as high as he does for the Republicans. The same can be said about Rudy Giuliani. Remember... this is a poll taken WITHOUT name recognition, and conventional wisdom has been that a pro-choice Republican wouldn't ever become the Republican candidate in '08.
