New poll/Old poll
Last week we graded John McCain on how well he is conducting his campaign.
This week it’s Barack Obama’s turn. Here’s the new poll question:
Grade Barack Obama on his presidential campaign so far.
[HT: Bill O’Reilly]
Here are the answers to last week’s poll. Neither Americans nor our International friends gave McCain high marks by and large, but those on the other side of the pond were harder graders…
Click on one of the maps below to enlarge to find your personal brightly colored flag:
As always, make comments to either this or last week’s poll here, not on the Vizu website.
Aug.09, 2008 6:19 am |
Polls |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
His campaign started out with an A.
He couldn’t help having friends for enemies and a big-mouthed wife, so it hovered over a B.
After his smash Euro/Mideast tour, it definitely fell to a C.
Just heard that McCain is ahead of BO in Pennsylvania, so now we’re looking at a furious C-.
There’s speculation of late that Hillary may not be out of the race after all, depending on what her people and BO’s people agree to regarding the Dem’s Natn’l Convention. And MSM are scratching their heads wondering why on earth the Good Senator isn’t creaming McCain at the polls by now. At this point, he’s dangerously close to a D.
Extra credit is out of the question.
Great analysis, Carder.
Well,
McCain started off as the one great hope for a Republican candidate that wasn’t completely unelectable. Then he sold his soul to the Bushes to become their lapdog. Now it turns out he’s flip flopped on more issues more times than John Kerry would dare dream of. All his supporters want to do is trash Obama, not praise their candidate. He’s become such an afterthought that foreigners thought it came down to Obama vs. Hillary for the presidency.
If you think waiting to collect scrap votes from racists and people who somehow believe they’ll be forced to convert to Islam is good campaign strategy, then you must think McCain is doing a bang up job.
JKeller,
Interesting line of thinking there, but speaking for myself, that wasn’t my thought process at all.
I’m a minority,too, so I’m not about to cry racist. Moving right along…
The soul-selling/ flip-flop market is by no means monopolized by McCain. And the media just can’t have enough of Obama and his darling family. As far as sounding out the bells and whistles, Obama has it, hands down.
Problem is, it’s not working at the polls.
There’s a saying in Spanish that goes, “Tell me who you call your friends, and I’ll tell you who you are.”
Poor guy, he just can’t help it sometimes.
It doesn’t matter if he panders to them or not, the racists will be voting for McCain (If they can find their way through the empty bottles of Bud and Jack and the various remains of old cars, appliances and furniture that litter the front yard of their trailer park homes to get to the polls, that is).
It’s no secret that he will be counting on the votes of people who for one reason or another hate Obama. Will anyone be voting for McCain simply because they believe in him? Or will they be voting for him because they don’t want to vote for a black guy, or a “Muslim”, or a liberal, or a “pro-abort”?
McCain’s campaign is entirely void of any originality. Simply presenting yourself as the alternative for people who like to keep this country backwards like in the “good ole days” will not win many moderates or independents, which is what this race will boil down to.
Who are we talking about again? Oh yeah, McCain. That old guy trying to beat Obama. What’s his first name again?
Seriously, I think if the election was held today Obama would win by name recognition alone. Is it the media’s fault for covering his every move and every move of his every acquaintance nonstop? Maybe, but I noticed that the only add I’ve seen for McCain had the word “Obama” in it more than “McCain.”
McCain needs to step it up!
That anonymous comment was me. Sorry.
JKeller @ 9:28,
Talk about sweeping generalizations…. You don’t say much about McCain your self when you have a chance. Calling a vote for McCain a “racist” vote. Not true. I’m sure people living in trailer parks love being called racists.
McCain’s campaign is entirely void of any originality. Simply presenting yourself as the alternative for people who like to keep this country backwards like in the “good ole days” will not win many moderates or independents, which is what this race will boil down to.
Sounds more like Obama’s campaign to me with a few corrections. Replace the words “to keep this country backwards like the good ‘ole days”, with “CHANGE”. People who want CHANGE (whatever that means) will be voting for O.
Obama has run a very dirty, deceitful campaign.
In Texas (my home state) the amount of cheating going on at the cacauses was disgraceful. People flat out told a (black) acquantiance of mine that they were from out of state because they thought that she was an Obama supporter.
The list of all of his shady dealings is a mile long. My mom was a state delegate/ Democratic party chair of her district, so she saw all of this first hand.
The texas election was such a disgrace that the state democratic party is trying to change the entire way we do primaries in this state to stop any further coruption.
I don’t trust Obama *at all* and neither does my super d-duper liberal mother or any of the super d-duper liberals involved in the election process in Texas.
My point in all of this is that Obama’s going to have a tough time if he can’t even convince his own party that he’s an alright guy.
I never called any vote for McCain a racist vote. I merely said white racists that vote will undoubtedly be voting for McCain, among the votes he will be getting from non-racists who hate Obama for other reasons, and the small percentage of votes he will be getting from people who are actually fans of John McCain.
But you are free to prove me wrong about that. Go to any white supremacist gathering and if you can find one person who says they will be voting for Barack Obama bring them here and I will public rescind my statement and I might even just eat my hat too.
JKeller, McCain is also winning the critical older vote…by double digit margins.
JKeller,
I agree with you about the white racists voting for McCain, because, surprise! that’s what we would expect from those folks.
Just like I’m sure there are some minority folks who will vote for Barack because, guess what? Not because of any other issue, but because the brother’s a brother.
When you got the likes of Ludacris rapping “Come on black people, vote for Barack” (paraphrasing), calling Hillary a witch with a “b”, and awarding McCain with a paralytic wish, don’t tell me there isn’t some reverse racism taking place. Barack had some political sense to attempt bus-throwing at the guy, but it comes to show that whether we like it or not, race WILL be an issue because there are those who will see to it.
Don’t want you to eat your hat, my friend. I think that you as well as I want to see this election focused on the “issues”, not the color/personality fixatons.
Carder, the black aquaintance I spoke of earlier was actually threatened repeatedly when she wore her “Hillary” button around Oak Cliff (a mostly black part of Dallas).
She literally had to request escorts to her car because she was once chased down.
Of course, you can’t necessarally say that Obama was encouraging this behavior, but she also got some pretty intimidating emails from the Obama campaign that essentially said that she should vot for Obama because he was black and that there wouldn’t be another black presidential candidate for 50 years if she didn’t vote for Obama now.
Well, now, Lauren, I couldn’t POSSIBLY believe that your acquaintance would get emails such as that from the Obama campaign, seeing as how he doesn’t look like Lincoln, Washington,Jackson, Jefferson, who else did I miss?
If you could produce those emails, then I’ll eat my hat, too!
@@
Oh, but Carder he wasn’t talking about race there…oh no…he was talking about the fact that he was young…yeah that’s it…he’s young!
JKeller, 10:05a, said: ” I merely said white racists that vote will undoubtedly be voting for McCain”
And by the same logic, will you give equal time to the black racists voting for Obama? What’s the latest percentage of African-Americans planning to vote for him, 90+%?
Kerry got 88% of the black vote.
Jill 11:30am
Can someone explain why voting for a candidate only because he’s white is racist but voting for a candidate only because he’s black isn’t?
Also, have you noticed the issue of race is raised only by Obama when’s he’s whining about how he will be picked on for his name, looking “different” and “oh did we mention, he’s black? Can anyone imagine Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice snivelling like this? Are there any direct quotes from McCain or other prominent republicans concerning his race?
By the way, America’s “first black president”, Bill Clinton has complained that Obama’s campaign used the race card against him! Also, Clinton would not acknowledge that Obama is qualified to be president.
Do not underestimate the Clintons. They have not gone quietly into the night.
Hal 12:12PM
No surprise there. Blacks mostly vote Democrat.
Jkeller 9:28am
Is your stereotyping and ridicule of people who live in trailer parks any different than the racism you condemn in others? It sounds incredibly bigoted and elitist to me.
If I were to make a similar comment about the black or Native American community, I have no doubt you would be the first to condemn me as a racist.
I have long maintained that those who are the first and loudest to condemn the racism and/or bigotry of others are the people most blind to their own. You prove my point well.
Hal 12:12PM
No surprise there. Blacks mostly vote Democrat.
Posted by: Mary at August 9, 2008 2:04 PM
Jill prefers to call them “racists”
Hal,
Unless I’m mistaken, its the McCain supporters who are assumed to be racist.
And by the same logic, will you give equal time to the black racists voting for Obama? …
Posted by: Jill Stanek at August 9, 2008 11:30 AM
Has anyone else noticed that the polls always even up just before the election? Even Reagan-Carter polls went from a Reagan shutout to a dead heat just before the election. Poll responders want to feel their vote will make a difference.
I think something similar may explain why the current polls measure so close. After 2004 the electorate is sensitive to, and resentful of, the feeling that they can be manipulated so easily.
SoMG, yes, that is a phenomenon, though a fairly recent one, i.e. the polls haven’t always evened up.
Tell you what though – as I’ve said previously – we got us a horserace here.
Hey Jill,
I was the “red” color in Europe last week! I gave him a C, all others gave hime D’s and F’s..
I was is Dresden, very close to Poland…
My gut feeling as I said is that the closeness is an extension of the same force, whatever it is, that makes the polls narrow the week before the election, but for some reason that force is operating earlier this time. In other words, a small measured lead in this race is more meaningful than a larger lead in previous races.
Obama can still blow it but it won’t be because of anything McCain does. This is going to be a thinking person’s election, like 1992.
In the short term the gap will continue to narrow as Republicans hit the “self-styled preordained savior” card. This tactic will narrow the gap but not erase it.
And if McCain wins, I don’t think you’ll like what will happen during his Presidency. I just can’t see the heavily Dem-controlled Congress (both houses) cooperating with McCain on changing the entitlement laws. I can’t see him proposing laws they would be right to cooperate with either, he enjoyed the 1980s too much and he’s given every indication he’d play Reaganesque games like proposing things they couldn’t possibly agree to in order to blame everything on them. Remember, changing entitlement laws will cut the incomes of critical organized members of the Dem Party’s base and if there’s the slightest hint of a Republican attempt to take political advantage or a failure to offer equivalent sacrifices of Republican special interests everyone will clamp down back into the gridlock pattern that froze the government in the years before Ross Perot, the legally-mandated-spending bombs will continue their explosions-in-progress (like in the Star Trek TNG episode where time is frozen and Picard draws a face with his finger in the expanding cloud of a warp-core explosion in progress, that’s us) and the government will go bankrupt. Government bankruptcy will cause more people to die in terror attacks than 9111. They will all be victims of the merciless Laws of Arithmetic.
I’m not saying Obama will be able to get the Congress to cooperate on entitlements but he’ll have a better shot at it than McCain ever would, and he’s more likely to try seriously.
Another prediction: everything the Clintons do, whether they appear supportive of Obama or critical of him, they will be doing calculatedly to help him. The idea that either of them would prefer McCain to win is a silly fantasy.
Any readers from Arizona? What would be wrong with Janet Napolitano as Obama’s running mate? Smart white female Governor of a hi-tech Western state, known for her political guts and no-nonsense approach to things? The only problem I’m aware of is she does nothing for him on foreign policy. Respond, please.
HisMan is from Arizona.
Bah- both Obama and McCain suck.
Go Colbert! Or Chuck Norris’ beard!
Or Paris Hilton.
@SoMG: Y’know, she’d probably be a better president than either Obama or McCain. She’s stupid AND she knows she’s stupid. That’s a plus.
Hey Jasper, how exciting to see your vote in Europe! =)
McCain still has the Ace up his sleeve. In one statement, he would clinch the Presidency:
Hal 5:59PM
Maybe we should just not assume that white voters who support McCain are racist and black voters who support Obama are not. I think that’s Jill’s point. Also black voters seem to have switched their allegiance from Hillary to Obama. I suspect if white voters switched allegiance from a black candidate to a white one with the same political agenda, it would be called racism.
Someone should also remind Obama to stop making an issue of his “funny” name, his “different” look and “oh, did we mention he’s black”. It sounds whiney and self pitying.
As I pointed out in a previous post, I would never expect to hear this snivelling from two Americans I hold in very high esteem, Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell.
Rae, 1:22am
She’s also one of the most useless human beings on the planet. She’s be perfect for the congress or senate.
Charels 10:10am
The biggest mistake one can make with the Clintons is to underestimate them. These are not two people prepared to go quietly into the night.
Charles, this is *exactly* what the Clinton supporters are hoping for.
McCain doesn’t even have to say he just wants 1 term, the fact that he is so old pretty much makes this the assumption of most of the “no-deal” crowd.
@Mary: Excellent point. I am willing to bet trained lab rats would be more competent as senators and congresspersons than the scumballs we already have there.
Maybe we should just not assume that white voters who support McCain are racist and black voters who support Obama are not”
Who’s assuming McCain voters are racists? Not me. I do assume racists will support McCain, or Barr. Where else can they go. I hope, however, the number of true racist voters is not a high as the polls suggest. The people who say they won’t vote for Obama because he’s black probably would consider it if his politics was more to their liking.
I do think it’s unfair to call blacks supporting Obama in generally the same number they supported Kerry “racist” for doing so. I have not heard any black person say they were voting for Obama *becaue* he’s black, although many are happy to have a chance to vote for a black candidate they like.
Hal, the problem is Pennsylvania and Ohio are much more racist than the rest of the USA.
Hal 6:19PM
JKeller suggested in a post that white racists support McCain. I only suggest that supporting Obama because he’s black is no less racist than supporting McCain because he’s white.
Ironically its Obama making an issue of race with his whining about how he will be picked on for being “different”, etc.
Mary. I understand, but I don’t agree. 1) there is no one that I know who is supporting Obama because he’s black (hence the evidence that Kerry and Obama are getting roughly the same percentage of black votes), and 2) I don’t think that would be racist even if it happened. There are legitimate reasons to want a black president because he’s black (assuming he’s otherwise qualified of course). There is no legitimate reason to not want a black president because he’s black.
SoMG: That might true. i hate to think it though.