Home Cookin' Favors Obama, Clinton
Two Democrats Get Strongest Endorsements From Home State Voters, CBS Exit Polls Find
-
Sixty-four percent of Illinois voters said Sen. Barack Obama, left, would make a good president; 57 percent of New Yorkers said the same of Sen. Hillary Clinton. (AP)
-
Who's Who 2008 Democratic Hopefuls Clinton, Obama and Edwards lead the chase for the Democratic nomination.
-
Who's Who 2008 Republican Hopefuls McCain and Giuliani head up the Republican pack chasing the presidency.
Do voters in the home states of some of the potential 2008 White House contenders think their favorite sons or daughters would make a good president?
The CBS News exit poll put that question to voters in selected states on Election Day, and the results include good news for some of those thinking about becoming candidates and troubling news for others.
Among the top tier of 2008 wannabes, Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain got a thumbs-up from home state voters, while Rudolph Giuliani got a mild rebuke.
Obama, the freshman Democrat, received the highest positive rating of any potential candidate. Sixty-four percent of all Illinois voters said he'd make a good president, while just 29 percent said he would not. Among Democrats, he got a positive rating from 81 percent.
Clinton fared next best, with 57 percent of all voters in her home state of New York saying she'd make a good president, including 80 percent of Democrats.
Forty-eight percent of voters in McCain's home state of Arizona said the Republican senator would be a good president, while 41 percent said he would not be.Read more: Looking Ahead to 2008 — The Contenders
By 51 percent to 47 percent, New Yorkers said Giuliani would not be a good president. But he did get a 76 percent positive rating from Republicans in his state, the highest in the GOP field.
In keeping with the general mood of the electorate on Nov. 7, the Democratic contenders fared much better than their GOP counterparts. None of the eight Republicans included in the questioning (McCain, Giuliani, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, Virginia Sen. George Allen, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and New York Gov. George Pataki) were rated as good presidential timber by a majority of voters in their home states. And only McCain had a plurality that said he'd make a good president.
Home state appeal can be a critical indicator in a presidential race, given that only three times since 1804 has a president been elected without carrying his home state. (For those keeping score, they were James Polk in 1844, Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and Richard Nixon in 1968. Al Gore also won the popular vote in 2000, while losing his home state of Tennessee.)
But how important are these findings so early in the campaign, with most of the candidates still undeclared?
"The useful thing about this exercise is that citizens from the home state presumably know more about the candidate than most other Americans this early in the race," said David R. Jones, an associate professor of political science at Baruch College, City University of New York.
Jones says the key indicator may be whether "your home state is a state that a candidate from your party would normally expect to win in a presidential race."
Thus, Giuliani, with nearly 50 percent saying he'd be a good president in solidly Democratic New York, appears to be in less trouble than fellow Republicans from more GOP-friendly states.
"Hagel, Frist, Allen and Gingrich clearly fail the test," Jones says. "They all come from states that like Republican presidential candidates, but voters in their own state don't like them."
While among the Democrats, "Obama does slightly better than Hillary in a state that is less Democratic leaning, so that may bode well for him."
The other Democrats included in the exit polling were New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who was seen as a good potential president by 50 percent of voters in his home state; and Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, who got a positive rating from just 35 percent in his home state. Feingold has since announced he would not make a run for president.
At the bottom of the barrel in home-state appeal were Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and New York Gov. George Pataki. Just 25 percent of voters in Kerry's state said the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate would make a good president, while 71 percent said he would not.
The worst rating of all went to Pataki. Only 15 percent of New Yorkers said the Republican would be a good president, while 82 percent said he would not.
By Joel Roberts
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Read more: Looking Ahead to 2008 — The Contenders
The secrets of tennis legend 




- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 53 CommentsEdwards quote:
"If we can do the work that we can do in this country -- the work we will do when John Kerry is president -- people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk. Get up out of that wheelchair and walk again". The quote was later misquoted on the Drudge Report as: "When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk".
To imply that Christopher Reeve was kept in the wheelchair because of the policies of the Bush administration on stem cells is ridiculous and insulting." Progressive research and information center Media Matters have argued that when the entire quote is used "Edwards was premising 'people like Christopher Reeve' 'walking again' on the outcome of research that a Kerry administration would support."
To imply that Edwards is against stem cell research tells me that you may be one of those "propaganda swallowing idiots" I spoke of in an earlier post.
To those of you with $500,000 salaries and that much again in the stock market John Edwards is not your guy, but if you find yourself in a situation something less than that, you would be foolish voting for anyone else.
are those two doing what it looks like they are doing...?
I am going to have a problem because I do not feel that I can vote for Hillary or Obama. I feel that both are unqualified for that office. Obama's relationship to corrupt and despotic Chicago's Stroger family and relationship with indicted politcally money man Tony Rezko and Rod
"not business as usual" Blogojevich, yeah, right, Illinois Governor, has ruled him out as far as I am concerned.
Hillary, well, words alone cannot speak for this untalented person, I would have to also wave my arms about. I hope that she does not become a candidate, I cannot vote for either.
That is unless the democrats are foolish enough to nominate either Obama or Hillary. Then I guess I would opt for the lesser of three evils and vote McCain. Come on America, please don't be as stupid as you have been the last two presidential elections. I really would like to vote for, rather than against, someone.
Therefore, I will not support Hillary Clinton.
Obama 2008!
NICE!!!!! I can't stop laughing at your rebuke of bushrocks 1.
Obama/Richardson '08
Watched Richardson's 2006 State of New Mexico address and was impressed. Don't think Hillary could win or be a good VP.
Watch every video I can find on Obama since his 2004 Dem Conv keynote and I'm always impressed.
Good news! Due to increasing difficulty in finding war bodies, the army has lowered it's recruiting age to 16! They are now also taking in chronic masturbators so you need not worry about them turning you away for your hairy palms. Hurry though you don't want to miss any of the action. Be sure to write us often.
Can you imagine how the republicans would drag Hillary through the mud.
Geri in Washington state
Disillusioned by savvy.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 53 Comments