Graphic Disaster?
If you want to know what a Democratic disaster looks like, I’d submit that the story the statistics from this Gallup Poll aren’t good news for Democrats. According to this Gallup poll, 28 percent of Hillary’s supporters would vote for John McCain if Hillary doesn’t get the nomination. Similarly, 19 percent of Obama’s supporters would vote for McCain if Obama doesn’t get the nomination.
It’s also reasonable to think that Democratic turnout would drop significantly if Obama isn’t the nominee. There’s no way that Hillary can attract young voters to the polls in the same numbers that Obama can. Then again, I suspect that Obama’s appeal to young voters has diminished since the start of the Pastor J-Wright scandal. It’s always been the case that young voters are idealists, willingly lending their energy to someone with soaring rhetoric.
Lately, Obama’s lofty rhetoric has taken a hit because he wasn’t willing to challenge Pastor J-Wright after any of his hate-filled sermons. Dick Morris nails it perfectly why this has damaged Obama:
Obama has looked weak handling the Rev. Wright controversy. His labored explanation of why he attacks the sin but loves the sinner comes across as elegant but, at the same time, feeble. Obama’s reluctance to trade punches with his opponents makes us wonder if he could trade them with bin Laden or Ahmadinejad. We have no doubt that McCain would gladly come to blows and would represent us well, but about Obama we are not so sure.
Obama has looked feeble in dealing with Pastor J-Wright. While it’s admirable to not abandon a friend, it isn’t admirable to stand up against Pastor J-Wright’s basest principles. Friend or not, his statements had to be vociferously challenged.
Four years ago, Democrats talked about how the Bush-Kerry race was Kerry’s to lose, that they were going to send President Bush back to Crawford. We all know how that turned out.
Are we looking at another election cycle when Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? It’s too early to tell. What isn’t too early to tell is that there’s indicators that that’s entirely possible.
Technorati Tags: Polling, Obama, Jeremiah Wright, Hillary, John McCain, President Bush, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog