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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Another Big Primary Night....

and just three to go before the American people have all cast their votes (in VERY high numbers!) for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

It was a split decision: a giant victory in Kentucky for Hillary, and a large victory in Oregon for Obama. Let's do a little number crunching, shall we?

35 percentage points.

That's the number by which Obama lost to Hillary in Kentucky.

Now, we can do the simplistic thing and assume that Kentucky (and West Virginia, where she crushed Obama by 41) are both full of banjo-twanging, dentally-challenged racist rednecks; or, we can look a little deeper into the exit polling.

The Wright Factor: Still In Play.

78%.

That's the amount of respondents who felt that Obama shares the views of his pastor, mentor and friend of 20 years, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, to some degree.

22%.

That's the percentage of people who responded "Not at all" to the question of whether or not Obama shared Wright's values. NOT surprisingly, they voted overwhelmingly (65%) for Senator Obama.

What's the Matter with Bitter, Clinging Working-Class Voters?

67%.

That's the amount of respondents who stated that the economy was the most important issue. Hillary Clinton's voters made up 69% of that number.

So no, all you people who think Barack Obama made some kind of profound statement with his BitterCling remarks. Those voters are NOT voting because of religion, love of guns, fear of immigrants or racism. They are voting their pocketbooks, and they like the cut of Hillary's jib on that issue. Who wouldn't? The economy was her husband's strongest issue, after all.

Now, let's get to the numbers that should be giving the Democratic Party agita if they actually want to win in November.

33%.

That's the percentage of Hillary's voters that would be "satisfied" if Barack Obama was the nominee. Yowch.

28%.

That's the percentage of Kentucky voters who would be "satisfied" with either candidate. (A bit of decent news here: 48% of Hillary's voters said either candidate was fine...and 48% of Barack Obama's voters said the same thing.)

74%.

That's the total amount of Kentucky voters who would be satisfied with Hillary Clinton as the nominee. In contrast, 42% would be satisfied with Barack Obama as the nominee.

Look, we can be like the rabid Obamans at Daily Kos who moan about what ignorant fools they be in Appalachia, or we can take a good hard look at these numbers and figure out how to actually beat McCaca in November. (I just had a terrible thought - what if McCaca picks Colin Powell as his VP? Holy crap!)

I feel that Hillary Clinton must be the nominee, or we will lose our opportunity to expand the electoral map in a truly amazing way. (I even saw a head-to-head poll matchup against McCaca in North Carolina where McCaca beats Obama, but LOSES TO HILLARY. My Jeebus!)

Whether Obama is her VP or not is an open question - Kentucky voters say no, but only by 8% - but it seems to me that the voters we need are speaking in very loud tones.

We would be idiots to ignore them.

I know that John McCain will not.

2 comments:

Snort said...

Unfortunately, while I think each will campaign for the other, I don't think they will be on the same ticket. I doubt either one would accept V.P.

Sigh

madamab said...

Sigh indeed.

What a mess.

If McCaca ends up walking into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2009, I'm leaving the Democratic Party for sure. There is absolutely no excuse for losing this year. NONE!