So I've been following the current debate about the electability of Obama and Clinton, and have read some very disparate statistics and conclusions. Although many people believe that Obama couldn't win the general election some recent articles, particuarlly in Time (Lightning Rod:http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1682258,00.html and Obama's Iowa Surge: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1686821,00.html), have made me wonder if he isn't actually the more electable of the two; a conclusion that his recent gains in Iowa might verify.
I've always felt that the Democrats would be stupid to select Clinton as their candidate due to her polarizing nature, so maybe I'm biased. But the statistics on how she stacks up better against Guiliani in swing and red states were particuarlly striking to me. And, of course, it might all depend on how they run their campaigns and the strategies that they use, but what do you guys think?
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I found an interesting article and poll series from the Pew Center: http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=307.
While I realize that this isn't an exact predictor of the Republican or Democratic nominee, I found several aspects particularly interesting. First of all, there has been a big "to do" about the importance of the 2008 election, and how early the race began. However, this poll illustrates a consistent trend: the wide gap between the political elite and general public. Only 24% of those polled said they had "thought about the 2008 candidates a lot." 40% of those polled said they had "thought about the 2008 candidates not much or none at all."
I also found it interesting to see that the most frequent trend in comments concerning Hillary Clinton involve Bill Clinton and/or the Clinton presidency. This is followed by miscellaneous negative comments. This somewhat confirms the generalizations that voters may be too heavily associating Hillary with having Bill back in the White House, a mistake that this country cannot afford to make. In addition, it underscores what Emily said about polarization and negativity. As far as Obama is concerned, his top comments and themes involve inexperience, freshness, and intelligence.
Being from Chicago and as a member of Students for Barack Obama, I have a slight bias towards the young Senator from Illinois. I hope that the positive feedback from the last few weeks (especially in Iowa) will continue and allow for a new, less partisan politics.
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