It was sort of like finding a Christmas tree in a cornfield. In late July and early August, Iowa Republican voters were asked to name their choice for president in a University of Iowa poll. Mitt Romney, who leads most Iowa surveys, got 22 percent of the total. Rudy Giuliani came in second with 10 percent. But third place went to a Democrat, Barack Obama, who got nearly 7 percent -- more than Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Sam Brownback combined.What does this mean for Democrats and our primary election? Probably not much, but it is something. By putting Obama's name down, the republican who picked him not only said that they agree with a lot of what he has to say, but it also showed that he has great bipartisan appeal and is a good sign for, at the least, his ability to grab independent and moderate-right votes. On another note, it is yet one more sign that Hillary may be my "girl" (that was a reference to a speech she gave recently, if you didn't pick it up), but she has a lot of work to do if she wants to reach out to the moderates. Ironically, she is in actuality probably more moderate than Obama...
Not to worry: The Obama campaign isn't likely to join the Grand Old Party, and pollsters are convinced that Obama has exactly zero chance of winning the Republican caucus in Iowa. But something is going on. "I don't want to make too much of it," says David Redlawsk, the professor who commissioned the poll. "But I do think that the message Obama is putting out right now is the most likely to reach across party lines."
Friday, August 24, 2007
Republicans Prefer Obama
The following article, taken from salon.com, is presented in full:
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Those results are pretty significant, especially if every Democratic candidate was offered as a choice in the poll.
I've been saying what this poll confirms for months. Obama is the candidate who can bring this country together after seven years of ruthless polarization. One of Hillary's shortcomings--indeed, her greatest shortcoming--is that she is one of the most polarizing political figures of our time. Whether or not she deserves that status is debatable.
I agree with Taylor, though, Obama is more liberal than Hillary, but that's the most beautiful aspect of the proposition of Obama being the Democratic nominee. Many commentators have compared Obama to JFK and RFK, but other commentators like the conservative George F. Will have compared Obama to Ronald Reagan. Like the Gipper, Obama has an uncanny ability to draw votes from the opposing party without sacrificing his ideological principles. By contrast, one poll this summer showed that more than 50% of the nation would never consider voting for Hillary. Significantly, she was the only candidate in either field who broke 50%.
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