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Clinton Pollster Argues Buyers Remorse Setting In
March 19, 2008 3:26 PM
ABC News' Kate Snow Reports: Sen. Hillary Clinton’s top pollster says voters are starting to get a case of “buyer’s remorse” when it comes to choosing a presidential candidate.
Selectively citing some flattering new polling figures, top Clinton adviser Mark Penn claimed Sen. Barack Obama’s national lead among Democrats is “evaporating”.
“Perhaps a significant case of buyer’s remorse is setting in as people begin to go through the process of vetting and testing Senator Obama,” Penn told reporters on a conference call Wednesday.
Actually, a review of recent polls shows a more complicated picture than Penn describes.
A new national Gallup tracking poll released today -- and quoted by Penn -- does show Clinton with a statistically significant lead over Obama for the first time in more than a month, 49 to 42 percent.
But just two days ago, a separate Gallup/USA Today poll had Obama up over Clinton by the same margin, 49 to 42 percent for Obama. On that same day, a CNN poll showed found Obama leading Clinton 52-45.
In the Gallup poll released today, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain leads Obama, 47 to 43 percent. But he also edges out Clinton with 48 percent to her 45 percent.
Penn was asked if he thought recent stories about Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, were contributing to voter sentiment about Obama.
“I don’t think you can pick out any single issue here,” he said but then listed several recent negative stories about Obama, including a meeting between an Obama adviser and Canadian diplomats about NAFTA; the resignation of former Obama aide Samantha Power; and the ongoing Rezko trial.
“Just a month ago the Obama campaign was touting numbers of their candidate doing better against John McCain,” Penn said. “Several new polls show Hillary Clinton leading McCain,” he claimed and then cited various state polls.
On the conference call, the Clinton campaign also took credit for the release of some eleven thousand pages of schedules from the time the senator was first lady.
While they were emphatic that the National Archives was in charge of releasing those documents, aides were eager to say it was evidence of the campaign’s transparency.
“We have 11-thousand documents in the public record as of today,” said campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson. “Senator Clinton, as many of you know, has been the subject of some sixty books. She is, in many respects, an open book.”
Senator Obama, on the other hand, charged Wolfson, has not been as open.
Wolfson called on Obama to release any records or letters pertaining to his time as a member of the Illinois legislature.
“There’s much Senator Obama can do on disclosure if he chooses to make this an issue,” said Wolfson.
March 19, 2008 in Bush, George W., Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (90)
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Hillary is not going to win the nomination. The only shot the folks like Mark Penn think they have is to completely and utterly destroy Obama as well as the Democratic Party. In the process, they will succeed in making Obama less electable, but still SO much more electable than Hillary. Isn't anyone the bit curious how magically the exact same edited video of Pastor Wright shows up on Fox News and then ABC News right after the Ferrarro dust-up? Regardless of the respect I used to have for the Clinton's, if somehow Hillary pulls off the nearly impossible and steals the nomination, large portions of the Democratic base will turn their backs on her and sit out the presidential election (and thus, she'll lose in a historic landslide).
Posted by: Paul | Mar 19, 2008 3:34:57 PM
If Hillary wins the nomination I, along with many democrats I know, will stay home.
Posted by: Dem | Mar 19, 2008 3:37:33 PM
Hillary Clinton has the easy road to
the whitehouse now that Obama has melted
down
Posted by: bob | Mar 19, 2008 3:38:53 PM
Per polls, Hillary is the one holding the base of Dems...
Posted by: Truth | Mar 19, 2008 3:41:07 PM
I won't turn my back on Sen. Clinton. In fact, she's our only hope at this point. We need her now more than ever. I hope she gets the nomination and if she does, I'll be the first in line to vote for her.
Posted by: diddy | Mar 19, 2008 3:41:08 PM
Well put Paul, thanks for those comments.
Posted by: Melissa | Mar 19, 2008 3:42:29 PM
Paul,
Is that you Karl. Good grief, so your zany assertion is that somehow Hillary Clinton is responsible for the damage done by Reverend Jeremiah Wright to the Obama campaign. Is your real name Karl Rove?
Posted by: WestCoastMessenger | Mar 19, 2008 3:43:11 PM
Hillary's supporters are counting on the failure of Obama, instead of Hillary's merits, for her to win a nomination that she does not deserve. Just read those postings, if all they have got is "Obama is toast", "Obama's melt down", then they should ask themselves, why are they supporting Hillary? This is nothing but her opponent was toast? Good reason to elect a world leader, fools.
Posted by: Christine | Mar 19, 2008 3:52:21 PM
Hee Hee....is there nothing the Evil Genius Karl Rove, and the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, cannot do??
Posted by: carl | Mar 19, 2008 3:53:58 PM
Who makes up the National review. I feel sorry for ignorant people that pay attention to them.
Posted by: james | Mar 19, 2008 3:54:39 PM
"On that same day, a CNN poll showed found Obama leading Clinton 52-45."
Again, the fine print on CNN actually showed that this lead was NOT statistically significant. The margin of error reported in that poll showed them to be statistically tied (nice biased reporting though CNN).
In contrast, today's new national Gallup tracking poll, the lead IS statistically significant. The margin of error reported was actually relatively small at 2%.
It will be interesting to see how this trends over the next few weeks.
Posted by: LOM | Mar 19, 2008 3:55:50 PM
Every time I see that young man's face flash across the news, the hair on the back of my neck stands up on end. I can't explain it, there is just something very unsettling about his demeanour and body language. By the way, he will NOT be the first black president. He is NOT black. He is just playing both ends of the race fiddle to his advantage. How convenient.
Posted by: Bill Elliott | Mar 19, 2008 4:00:41 PM
When Obama started his campaign, he claimed himself as "saint", "the agent of change/hope", "inspiration of Words"...
His own qualificaiton is his words: now his own words are biting himself.....
Posted by: Truth | Mar 19, 2008 4:00:48 PM
In the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, Obama now leads Clinton 47% to 42%. Yesterday, Obama led 45% to 44% (see recent daily results).
Rasmussen Reports as of today!
Posted by: carmen | Mar 19, 2008 4:00:51 PM
This is so sad, so Mccain now leads both democrats, democrats you need to put your house in order or you would lose in November.
Posted by: Emo | Mar 19, 2008 4:00:56 PM
Um, she released the pages because she was ordered to by a judge due to a lawsuit. Even so, they are demanding a year or two to release the call logs. Her accounting for her Kosovo trip is directly refuted in the log. I've gone through over a year of the logs and have yet to see anything more significant than a meet and greet on her schedule.
Posted by: Louis | Mar 19, 2008 4:14:12 PM
Wolfson is all spin. And about those tax returns, Howard?
One thing is certain, there is an increasing amount of talk of "protest" votes for McCain or Nader if Clinton is "awarded" "wins" or "conquers" the Democratic nomination. She has created and exploited too many divisions for her to reverse. Her campaign has been based in dividing not uniting. Voters should be offended that Clinton thinks all will be "forgiven" in the end; or that voters will be handily manipulated later on in Denver for the sake of party unity.
Based on what I hear, that is not going to happen.
Posted by: Mary | Mar 19, 2008 4:14:13 PM
Those of you that worship different polls every other day of the week are getting tired. The only polls that count are on real election days - something that Florida and Michigan seem to choose to avoid now that they wanted to be "players" back in early January.
Posted by: Marco Rincones | Mar 19, 2008 4:16:56 PM
Talk about cherry picking LOL Real Clear Politics which follows all 10 of the National polls has Obama leading and in the indivual pools shows Clinton winning 1 while Obama leads in all others.....guess Penn didn't want to discuss the other polls ....
Posted by: Brian | Mar 19, 2008 4:32:15 PM
East,
I'm a DOWNSCALE DEMOCRAT, one who is paying $4 per gallon for gas and knows that these election is about issues. I can't be bought so don't even try. You fail to provide any logic in your condemnation of CLINTON, but if you want to convince me to move to OBAMAs corner you will have to do better than ridicule. Many have tried before you and failed.
Posted by: WestCoastMessenger | Mar 19, 2008 4:37:15 PM
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