Gallup’s new poll reporting that Americans are more likely to be deterred from supporting John McCain over his association with George W. Bush than to be dissuaded from backing Barack Obama over Jeremiah Wright has been getting lots of attention in the blogosphere these last few days, particularly among Obama boosters.
But Gallup’s own analysis notes that digging deeper into the numbers reveals worse news for Obama than for McCain:
[T]he data suggest that Wright may be more detrimental to Obama’s candidacy than Bush is to McCain’s. Nearly one-fifth of Democrats, 19%, say they are less likely to vote for Obama because of his ties to Wright (only 2% say the Wright-Obama connection increases their odds of voting for Obama). Meanwhile, just 10% of Republicans say they are less likely to vote for McCain because of his association with Bush; about the same percentage (12%) say this relationship makes them more likely to vote for McCain.
But it’s also worth noting that more Democrats report being less likely to support McCain because of his Bush connection (64 percent) than Republicans who report Wright-inspired reluctance over Obama (50 percent). That’s especially important because both candidates claim crossover appeal.
Ergo, what would have been more helpful is a poll of independent voters.
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posted May 13, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Wright statement might have offended some,but Bush has set America back for many years. Americans are jobless,homeless,and hungery. Many American are living as “squatters in tents cities. jobs are outsourced to socialize other countries. Iraq is more prosper than America,because billions of dollar sent to Iraq monthly. The Iraqis are eating steak ,while Americans are grocery shopping at the 99cent stores. I can not eat Rev Wright,but I would like for my job to be not outsourced. We must tell the GOP,that America is not for sell.
posted May 13, 2008 at 2:12 pm
My medical insurance went up 16%, prescriptions, 300% and my gasoline costs 75%. And McCain has no plan to change that except to reward the rich 1% with more profits and less taxes. Bush will veto a bill that will truly help those people who where conned into taking risk mortgages and wants to keep on fighting in a country that could care less about democracy. Bush supporting McCain? McCain must accept it but we don’t. If McCain wants more support from the middle class working voters and the elderly fixed income people, he would do better not allowing GWB on his campaign trail.