Clinton Leads Obama by 7 Nationally
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, HillaryA new Gallup poll shows Hillary Clinton leading nationally over Barack Obama 49% to 42%. It’s her first statistically significant lead since Super Tuesday.
Looks like that Rev. Wright story hurt. I don’t know if Democrats are shying away from Obama because some now believe he’s anti-American or because some now realize they’re on the verge of nominating a guy with a scant public record whom we simply do not know very well. Or maybe it’s a calculated move as voters decide Obama would be subject to harsh attacks in the general election (although I don’t think political calculation plays into significant poll shifts).
If these poll numbers hold or even widen, that would give cover to superdelegates who choose Clinton despite the fact she’ll likely trail in pledged delegates. This just keeps staying interesting, doesn’t it?
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March 20th, 2008 at 9:23 am
[...] is way too early to tell just how effective Obama’s speech on race relations will impact the outcome of this contest. Already, more people have seen [...]
March 20th, 2008 at 10:45 am
First of all, let me introduce myself as a working class Democrat, a species hardly known by you writers, yet you write extensively about us.
Let me be kind to you as a reward for giving me an opportunity to post here and give you an insight into my mind as regards the Obama race flap. Let me also identify myself as a Black woman living in Jamaica Queens. If the New York Times wants verifcation of that, they are welcomed to do so. My comments are as follows:
I am glad that the Liberal Elitists are beginning to see, in spite of their cool-aid-drinking, loud praise for their Messiah Obama’s speech, we the working class Democrats out here saw it and didn’t see a few things in Obama’s speech, and they are as follows:
We saw:
1). That he preferred to throw his kind grandmother under the bus instead of distancing from this man’s hate and venom. He has now totally destroyed her legacy, and for someone who has sacrificed so much for him, it is sad, it is a shame! We wished he loved his granny more than he loved pastor.
2).That he still refused to outright comdemn the source of this hate and venom for country.
3). That he lied on Friday on TV when he did the rounds and at each stage stated that he was never in church when Wright preached in this way when in fact he was.
4). That his so-called “great speech” was a mere attempt to divert the issue to race instead of to his pastor’s anti-American rants and rave.
Note: We working class Democrats could forgive his pastor’s vile and rabid racism, if that is what he wanted us to do, but we can never, and I mean never, forgive his pastor for damning, America, slandering our country’s name and accusing this country of vile, despicable deeds comparable with deeds Hitler would commit.
5). We saw Obama’s judgement as he gave that speech. Farrakhan, Wright, Amadinejad, Chavez, what’s his name in Korea. If he could tolerate and feel comfortable with Wright and Farrakhan, it spoke directly to his judgement on our foreign policy. If this was the test, he failed it miserably and it is not something we should ignore. The consequeces of not getting it right is too damning!
[B]What I didn’t see was[/B]:
1). The reason Obama exposed himself, his wife and his two girls to this hate for 20 years?
2). The truth about Black churches. He implied that this is what goes on in Black churches. Well he lied about that as well. He threw them under the bus as well.
3). His taking full responsibility and full explaination.
4). And reasons to trust this man with the key to America.
In conclusion, let me say to all the Liberal Elitists out there, if you expect this man to be our standard bearer and proudly carry our flag, then you’d better come up with a reason why he hung out with the likes of Wright who in turn hangs out with Farrakhan, because Secretary of State Farrakhan scares me far less now, than presidential advisor Jeremiah Wright.
You see, we the working class is too busy earning a living than to nuance or to even put up with you “smarty pants” while you do it, but make no mistake about it, we are oftentimes much smarter than you guys, and WE GET IT!
PS: Thank you New York Times, for giving me this opportunity to vent. I really do appreciate! And if I may offer myself to occasionally give your readers a view from the grassroots, I would welcome the job because believe it or not, right now I am unemployed and job-hunting, and as you can see, I could string a few words together while being totally authenic. I told you, I was the real thing!
March 20th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I haven’t checked polls today, but as of yesterday, RCP had 3 wednesday national dem polls, and Obama was ahead of Clinton in two of them and behind in the Gallup poll. He was also holding firm so far in most of the state-by-states, although it’s hard to know how recent a sentiment those reflect.
So last I checked, it was still too early to call this a trend. We’ll know better when we’ve seen a week’s worth of polls that were conducted after both Obama’s speech and the following day’s spins.
Cheerfully agreed, It sure does keep it interesting. And I agree that if the democrats show a marked (and enduring!!) trend away from Obama over the course of the next 2 or 3 months, it gives the superdelegates cover. I’d go even further. If the frontrunner in a close race is stumbling badly nationally in the late rounds, I think that THEN you can argue that the SD have a responsibility to pick the candidate with the best shot in the fall.
I’ve said a couple times now that I expected the dem primary pattern to keep holding, with Hillary winning the big machine states, and Obama taking smaller ones and ones with substantial black populations. So I never expected Obama to win PA. He might have come close before, but recent PA polls say he’s looking at a near drubbing, I think. That really makes NC and IN the more interesting states.
Obama may lose the nom due to this. Time will tell. If he does, I’ll look at it that he went down because he insisted on his right to feel the way he really felt about his flawed black boomer-era mentor, as a black man more of the next generation, but still a black man.
Some folks seem unwilling to accept that. And they sound to me like they’re insisting that Obama really should feel the way THEY do about Wright…that all one need do to take a measure of the man Jeremiah Wright is hear his ugliest sermons. That there is no context in which they are understandable or forgiveable. Obama has, so far, insisted that he’s sticking with the measure he has taken of the man over the course of several decades. That takes guts, and I’d rather Obama went down with such a stand than that he hung on by expediently throwing Wright to the wolves and begged for white forgiveness.
I’m basically if the same mind as Mike Huckabee seems to be in the comments of his that I’ve seen on the issue. Such sentiments do not seem to be in the majority so far, but that’s just my subjective impression.
I do think that whether Obama wins or loses, the stature of the speech he just gave is going to be judged historically as pantheon level, right up there with 4 score and 7, and I have a dream. The criticism by some has been that the speech was an attempt to change the subject and/or broaden the context. That will fade as time passes and the speech stands for the subject it chose to take. Its merits within the exact context as a response to a controversy will come to be seen as mattering only within the context of the campaign. It will endure as voicing the challenge of what we all must face for true racial reconciliation to happen.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
obama has lost all credibility. He lied then flip flopped about it and he’s been caught. his speech was ok, not as amazing as most say and it was a total dodge. Superficially he’s all bells and whistles but the exterior gloss can’t hide what and who he is underneath. he has neither the strength or real depth of character to be president. He is now totally unelectable and McCain would wipe the floor with him.. If democrats really want to have the presidency, their only chance is Hillary.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
That is almost funny, if it weren’t so sad. I for one haven’t heard a better race speech since Rodney Kings, “Can’t We All Just Get Along” speech. Now that was brave, meaningful and lasting.