Obama survives Wright, Clinton fares poorly on credibility
by kos
Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 01:38:35 PM PDT
The problem the Clinton partisans face right now is that Obama didn't say what Wright said, and people are too smart to realize that just because you attend a church or are friends with someone, doesn't mean you agree with them 100 percent. (Just like you guys don't agree with everything I write, yet you continue to return.)
Pew Research Center. 3/19-22. Registered voters. MoEs: 3.5% for registered voter sample, 6% for GOP sample, and 5.5% for Dem sample. (2/20-24 results)
General election matchups
McCain 43 (43)
Obama 50 (49)
McCain 45 (44)
Clinton 50 (49)
Other surveys show different numbers, but bottom line here, Clinton doesn't fare better than Obama. Her electability argument, as can be seen in plenty of other surveys, doesn't hold any water.
Primary
Clinton 39 (40)
Obama 49 (49)
After all the Wright ups and downs, this is essentially treading water over the last month.
Obama's handling of the Wright situation
Excel/Good Fair/Poor
Tot 51 42
Rep 33 61
Dem 66 28
Ind 48 42
Obama Supporters 84 12
Clinton Supporters 43 52
Even Clinton supporters are generally split. Fact is, he handled it damn well.
Now let's look at how White Democratic voters see the two Democratic candidates:
Obama Clinton
Inspiring 80 65
Down-to-earth 78 63
Honest 79 66
Patriotic 78 90
Phony 16 30
Hard-to-like 13 43
Note the "phony" numbers, and that was before the Tuzla stuff exploded. This poll was finished last Saturday. So Clinton sort of walked into a trap, reinforcing a trait that people already harbored against her. I wouldn't have called her a "phony" a week ago, but now the evidence is mounting on that front. I suspect the next edition of this poll in a month will show a much larger spread on that question than 16-30.
That is, unless Clinton has a speech lined up to address those concerns.
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