Jan. 30, 2008
Democrats Ready To Rally Around A Nominee
CBS' Kathy Frankovic: Despite Bitter Campaign, Clinton And Obama Supporters Say They'd Back Either In November
-
Play CBS Video
Video
Clinton Rekindles Race Issue
Diversity expert Joe Watson tells Harry Smith that Bill Clinton's comparison of Sen. Barack Obama's S.C. primary win to Jesse Jackson's victory there 20 years ago was designed to cause sparks.
-
Video
Dems Fight For Upper Hand
Barack Obama gives thanks for his victory in South Carolina while Hillary Clinton defends her husband's antics. And John Edwards shakes off another loss. Dean Reynolds reports.
-
Video
Democrats Hold Fire In S.C.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are toning down their hostility on the eve of the South Carolina primary. John Edwards, however, might have the most to gain in the state. Drew Levinson reports.
-
News Tools
Poll Database
Search for results from the latest CBS News national polls on the president, the campaign and more.
-
Podcast
Poll Positions
Listen to CBS News director of surveys Kathy Frankovic dissect the data to see what's driving public opinion.
How do voters deal with an apparently bitter campaign?
It turns out that voters have handled the sniping and the charges among Democratic candidates pretty well - maybe even better than the candidates. This campaign is still exciting voters. And despite media coverage of a racial undercurrent - and the racial vote divide -- in last Saturday’s South Carolina Democratic primary, more than three in four voters there -- 77 percent - still said they would be satisfied if Hillary Clinton won their party’s nomination, while only a few percent more -- 83 percent -- said they would be satisfied if Barack Obama won.
Obama won 54 percent of the vote in South Carolina, and Clinton only 27 percent. That makes the high degree of “satisfaction” striking. Even when each candidate’s voters looked at the other front-runner, most -- about seven in ten -- saw someone they probably could support if he or she became the nominee. Only 28 percent of Obama’s voters said they would be dissatisfied if Clinton became the nominee, and only 31 percent of Clinton’s voters would be dissatisfied with an Obama nomination. (John Edwards’ voters were also generally positive -- six in ten of them said they would be satisfied if Clinton or Obama were the nominee).
This was the case even though majorities of South Carolina voters thought each candidate had engaged in unfair attacks on the other candidates: 56 percent said this about Obama, and 70 percent said this about Clinton. Voters were capable of criticizing candidate behavior while still looking ahead to the general election and some could even vote for a candidate whose behavior they disliked. Forty-four percent of those who voted for Obama admitted he had attacked other candidates unfairly. White and black Obama supporters did not differ much on this.
Fifty-two percent of black Obama voters said Bill Clinton’s campaigning had a great effect on their vote -- but more of those voters than other voters actually thought both candidates had played fair. And eight in ten of them still would be satisfied with a Hillary Clinton nomination.
This tolerance of both major candidates continued with the voters in Tuesday’s Florida primary. Eighty percent of all Democratic primary voters in Florida, and 70 percent of Obama voters, would be satisfied with a Clinton nomination. Seventy-one percent of all voters, and 60 percent of Clinton voters, would be satisfied if Obama won. (Edwards voters were the most likely to be dissatisfied -- just over 50 percent -- if either of the other two candidates won.).
Of course, this general Democratic voter acceptance of both Clinton and Obama may not last. There have been hard-fought primaries before when many more of one candidate’s supporters find the other candidate unacceptable. Some of the most memorable of those were Democratic primaries. In 1984, just after Gary Hart’s defeat of former Vice President Walter Mondale in the New Hampshire primary, he (briefly) became the Democratic front-runner. Thirty-eight percent in a national CBS News Poll favored Hart, with Mondale the choice of 31 percent. Before that primary, Mondale had led Hart 57 percent to 7 percent. A few weeks after that, in the Illinois primary, barely half of Hart and Mondale voters were saying that they would vote for the other candidate in a race against Ronald Reagan.
In 1980, Ted Kennedy challenged President Jimmy Carter for the nomination. Their battle continued until the Democratic convention -- one of the longest nominating battles in recent years. Nationally, Carter consistently led Kennedy by about two to one. But those feelings were strongly held. In the New York primary that year, fewer than half the supporters of Kennedy and Carter said the other was acceptable as the party’s nominee in November. In a March national poll, when Carter led Kennedy by nearly two to one, half of all Democrats had unfavorable views of Kennedy, and a third had unfavorable views of Carter.
The Hart-Mondale contest divided Democratic voters by age and by commitment to the party, much like the Clinton-Obama divide today. Younger voters, better educated voters, and voters who thought of themselves as independents were more likely to support Hart (as they do Obama this year), while older voters, less educated white voters and those who identify as Democrats were more likely to support Mondale (and now Clinton).
The Kennedy-Carter fight continued to the Democratic convention, and became ever more rancorous. While Carter clearly had enough committed delegates to win the nomination, the Kennedy forces campaigned to overturn the party’s rules, and let committed delegates change their minds (hopefully in Kennedy’s direction). They were unsuccessful.
In both years, the negative aspects of the campaigns carried over into the fall, as the Democratic nominee lost the election, and by wide margins. That makes what happened in South Carolina on Saturday all the more unusual and positive for the Democratic Party. Although black and white voters disagreed on which candidates to support, they agreed in principle that both front-runners would be acceptable to them.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- Latest in Opinion: Poll Positions
- Poll: Sotomayor Still An Unknown
- Will Americans Embrace Obama's "Change"?
- Bush's Popularity Reaches Historic Lows
- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 149 CommentsI can see that you know how to read the polls while Bailycc sticks to their own opinions.
Survey of 1,200 Likely Voters
January 25-27, 2008
John McCain (R) vs. Hillary Clinton (D)
McCain 48%
Clinton 40%
John McCain (R) vs. Barack Obama (D)
McCain 47%
Obama 41%
Who cares whether anybody''s ready to rally around a nominee - I think people care about whether we''re going to win or not. As far as I''m concerned Hillary attacked treated fellow Democrats like we were Republicans, which is a heck of a lot worse than I''ve ever been treated by McCain.
.
Given the current crop of "leading" candidate, all I can say is Ewwwww.
The Empty-Suit vs. Conniving Calculating vs. the Amnesty Old Fa''rt. Ewwwww, Ewwwww, Ewwwww.
.
lol, so you think just vote the Neocons back in and let them just finish bringing the country down to the bottom of ruin!!!
Now that makes sense.
The people of Florida have spoken, that''s what counts!!!
I''d vote for no-lie good-mind and no-greed good-heart! OBAMA!
I''''d vote for no-lie good-mind and no-greed good-heart! OBAMA!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by user168 at 02:01 PM : Jan 30, 2008
I agree, but the do Dems have a lengthy history of chronically, looking a gifted donkey in the mouth. Oh well.
How stupid can America be?
And as we fight a "war on terror" against violent Muslim extremists like Osama and dangerous dictators like Hussein, only Barack Hussein Obama can lead us to a better future...
Welcome to crazy land!!!!!!!
I''''''''d vote for no-lie good-mind and no-greed good-heart! OBAMA!
------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------
Posted by user168 at 02:01 PM : Jan 30, 2008
I agree, but the Dems do have a lengthy history of chronically, looking a gifted donkey in the mouth. Oh well.
How stupid can America be?
And as we fight a "war on terror" against violent Muslim extremists like Osama and dangerous dictators like Hussein, only Barack Hussein Obama can lead us to a better future...
Welcome to crazy land!!!!!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by gunownerdan at 02:08 PM : Jan 30, 2008
Who else is there, that is currently in the race.
Both Obama and Clinton believe law-abiding citizens should not be trusted to own common handguns, rifles, and shotguns while they rely on armed guards who carry MACHINE GUNS every single day.
"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual ... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of."
- Suzanna Gratia-Hupp
a-human-right.com
Are you tired of big government and out-of-control spending?
Do you value your constitutional rights?
Then there is only one candidate for you....
Dr. RON PAUL.
ronpaul2008.com
Im in a Northern Mid West Swing State with demographics similar to the Florida patterns we saw last night and numbers and the SC grudge match is not playing well here the nastiness of the old group identity grudges of the 60s and the requisite inflammatory attacks being played out against Hillary%u2019s husband Bill Clinton is opening old wounds and is alarming folks who are suspicious that the Dem Party may be moving away from the centrist kitchen table economic views exposed by Hillary and Schumer in 06s Positively America Dem Platform and swinging back to the same ole 60s Kennedy Liberal social justice and excessive spending Platform of ole. My State could really use infrastructure and green jobs stimulus Hillarys energy polices support.
Both Obama and Clinton believe law-abiding citizens should not be trusted to own common handguns, rifles, and shotguns while they rely on armed guards who carry MACHINE GUNS every single day.
"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual ... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of."
- Suzanna Gratia-Hupp
a-human-right.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by gunownerdan at 02:10 PM : Jan 30, 2008
He''ll have a gigantic fight on his hands with this one; I with you 100%.
Are you tired of big government and out-of-control spending?
Do you value your constitutional rights?
Then there is only one candidate for you....
Dr. RON PAUL.
ronpaul2008.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by gunownerdan at 02:11 PM : Jan 30, 2008
I like Paul, but he is up against more of an obstacle than just about everyone in the race; his pill is just too bitter and too quickly to swallow for a lot of people, although he is right on a lot of things. He can still build on his support though, because the country is going to need all of the help that it can get, no matter who is the president.
I wasn''t terribly wild about Obama, but I have come to respect his thoughtful approach to the typical inside the beltway politics.
I have been solidly Democratic all my life, but I am not beholden to the party. If the worst comes to pass and Billary is the nominee, McCain gets my vote and, more importantly, my money. I may not agree with him on many (most) issues, but he has a record of working for bilateral solutions and compramise.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by luckyme52 at 02:17 PM : Jan 30, 2008
-- in politics nothing changes -- ...only spoken from the mouths of people, who want things to stay the way that they are...
Every single Dem candidate, Dodd, Biden, Edwards, Obama, Hillary, Richardson, every one of them is a HUGE social and economic step up from the present BushCo. failure. WE have been extremely lucky this year to have a glut of outstanding candidates. If you are seriously thinking of voting for McCain over any Dem candidate than you really are a fool and can''t comprehend the damage BushCo. has done and that McCain (Bush III) will continue to do.
"Tyrants from Hitler to Mao to Stalin have sought to disarm their own citizens, for the simple reason that unarmed people are easier to control. Our Founders, having just expelled the British army, knew that the right to bear arms serves as the guardian of every other right. This is the principle so often ignored by both sides in the gun control debate. Only armed citizens can resist tyrannical government."
-- Congressman Ron Paul, June 27, 2006
Every single Dem candidate, Dodd, Biden, Edwards, Obama, Hillary, Richardson, every one of them is a HUGE social and economic step up from the present BushCo. failure. WE have been extremely lucky this year to have a glut of outstanding candidates. If you are seriously thinking of voting for McCain over any Dem candidate than you really are a fool and can''''t comprehend the damage BushCo. has done and that McCain (Bush III) will continue to do.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by taddles at 02:24 PM : Jan 30, 2008
Hillary has been in lock step with Bush, from start to finish, so what differs her from McCain?
Posted by gunownerdan at 02:10 PM : Jan 30, 2008"
Good-freakin-LORD don''t you gun rights nut jobs ever take a day off!!!
Look pin-head, there have been anti-gun groups and lobbies since the founding of this country! Several framers of the constitution did not want the citizenry to have guns of any type, ever! 200 years of anti-gun lobbies and what are the results??? Oh a 7 day waiting period to purchase a handgun in some states, a ban on MACHINE GUNS. That''s it! Can you buy and own a handgun? YES, can you buy and own a hunting rifle with a scope (read sniper rifle if you wish)? YES! can you buy a semi-automatic AR-15? YES! Your gun ownership rights have hardly been eroded in 200 years of ACTIVE anti-gun lobbying, it''s not very F**KING likely that the next administration is suddenly going to be able to subvert 200 years of work and sneak into your house and take your guns away. Give it a rest you doorknob and think of something other than your d1ck substitute for once in your pathetic life!
I also predict that Hilliary will pick Gov. Bill Richardson as VP. Everybody likes him - both parties; he has extensive experience in the private sector and government; knows most of the world leaders, etc. Plus he would get 100% of the Hispanic electorate. Remember, Bush only needed 40% to get reelected.
I also predict that a new cottage industry of "Clinton Haters" will crop up. Regardless as to what she does, they will always hate her. In this group, I especiually include talk show hosts like Hannity, Rush, etc.
I also predict that Hilliary will pick Gov. Bill Richardson as VP. Everybody likes him - both parties; he has extensive experience in the private sector and government; knows most of the world leaders, etc. Plus he would get 100% of the Hispanic electorate. Remember, Bush only needed 40% to get reelected.
I also predict that a new cottage industry of "Clinton Haters" will crop up. Regardless as to what she does, they will always hate her. In this group, I especiually include talk show hosts like Hannity, Rush, etc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by ramos937 at 02:34 PM : Jan 30, 2008
So if Clinton gets all of the hispanic vote, what does that make her, the illegal candidate?
"Tyrants from Hitler to Mao to Stalin have sought to disarm their own citizens, for the simple reason that unarmed people are easier to control. Our Founders, having just expelled the British army, knew that the right to bear arms serves as the guardian of every other right. This is the principle so often ignored by both sides in the gun control debate. Only armed citizens can resist tyrannical government."
-- Congressman Ron Paul, June 27, 2006
a-human-right.com
I also predict that a new cottage industry of "Clinton Haters" will crop up. Regardless as to what she does, they will always hate her. In this group, I especiually include talk show hosts like Hannity, Rush, etc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by ramos937 at 02:34 PM : Jan 30, 2008
And as a result, I also predict another 4 to 8 years of a Republican White House.
Reduced trading with the rest of the world, higher tariffs, stricter laws on employment terms, more government regulation, laws directed at specific companies (no bank for Walmart because it might hurt the income of Citibank), restrictions on foreign investment in the US (Dubai-based companies, sorry...); What economist thinks this will propel economic growth in the US and through what mechanism?
Left wing economics doesn''t work. It doesn''t work in Venezuela. It didn''t work in Sweden in the 1970s. It won''t work here. When will the Democrats learn? And don''t give Bush''s hypocrisy as proof that left wing economics work better than the free market principles that Bush didn''t follow.
Posted by l00ker at 02:28 PM : Jan 30, 2008"
How? How has she been lock step with Bush? Her voting record shows 96.7% voting for Dem agenda items. She is pro-choice, pro-civil unions, against the war, against lobbying and corporate hand-outs. Spend 5 minutes and read something about Hillary and her record before you make a stupid comment like "Hillary is just like Bush".
He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members.....
It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002
Posted by davidlar2 at 02:43 PM : Jan 30, 2008"
A "free market" only works if there is regulation to ensure a fair playing field, otherwise it just becomes a game of how to $crew the little guy most. The last 7 years has had NO regulation whatsoever, corporations have been free to do as they please and in many cases they have drafted the legislation that is supposed to regulate them.
You "free marketers" always misconstrue an unregulated playing field with a fair playing field. You somehow seem to think that federal regulation equates with Stalin era socialism. Everyone wants an equal playing field, it''s just the Repubs want the field to be more fair to them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by taddles at 02:50 PM : Jan 30, 20
She''s against the war, but she voted to authorize it, and she also voted to brand Iran''s Revolutionary Council, a terrorist organization, which opens the door for war with Iran. And she has stated, that America will have a continued military presence in Iraq, for years to come.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by antoniof123 at 02:48 PM : Jan 30, 2008
You have to do better than that.
The CFR has hijacked the foreign policy of both parties and their main goal is to destroy American sovereignty and our constitution leading to the formation of a North American Union with Canada and Mexico.
Dr. Ron Paul is NOT a member of the CFR and he is the only pro-peace and pro-liberty candidate running for president.
ronpaul2008.com
Posted by taddles
Are those accurate? Hillary voted for the war - a mistake which has costed us upwards of $15trillion, thousands of lives, and an increase in terrorist recruitment. And she''s accepted money from lobbyists and financial institutions, and has been endorsed by big pharma and big insurance. If you are a family of 4 with an annual income of $50k you might not qualify for health insurance premium subsidies under her plan . . . that''s going to amount to a couple of thousand a year that an already burdened middle class will have to shell out to big insurance a year under her healthcare plan. You think maybe that''s why she got their endorsement?
It seems like many women are just voting for Hillary because they think they''ll be more respected. As a woman, I think it makes women look worse if she''s being led around by the nose by big industry . . .
The CFR has hijacked the foreign policy of both parties and their main goal is to destroy American sovereignty and our constitution leading to the formation of a North American Union with Canada and Mexico.
Dr. Ron Paul is NOT a member of the CFR and he is the only pro-peace and pro-liberty candidate running for president.
ronpaul2008.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by gunownerdan at 03:02 PM : Jan 30, 2008
dan--
Please continue to confuse these Murphy Brown, and Ally McBeal fools in HillaryLand, with the facts.
Posted by taddles
That''s patently false - really, you need to do your research to make sure you really understand what''s going on. The market IS regulated because of Enron. And given that people tend to over-regulate in the wake of a scandal, it''s likely stifling the economy rather than just protecting it. Romney was the only one who picked up on that and made revision of Sarbanes-Oxley part of his economic growth plan.
Posted by gunownerdan at 02:54 PM : Jan 30, 2008"
Oh please, that ol chestnut?!? you couldn''t come up with anything better than that? All that quote does is reinforce that FACT that Bush and his cronies LIED to the US people (including you Dan though I very much doubt you give 2 $hits that you were lied to) and to the US Senate (a felony I might add). All Hillary did was get on board the same wagon that EVERY congressman and EVERY senator(except Wellstone and Feingold who I recall were derided by people like you for being "pu$$ies") jumped onto and all for the same reason...THEY BELIEVED THE PRESIDENT WOULDN''T LIE TO THEM.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 149 Comments