Day: May 21, 2008

Poll: Obama 10 Points Ahead of McCain

Buck Banks

In a new nationwide Zogby International poll released today, Barack Obama has taken a double-digit lead over John McCain:

Democrat Barack Obama has sprinted out to a 10-point lead over Republican John McCain in a four-way presidential contest including Libertarian Bob Barr and Liberal Ralph Nader, the latest Reuters/Zogby telephone poll of likely voters nationwide shows.

Obama does well among his Democratic base, winning 79 percent support — an indication that the party faithful may be coming together behind his campaign as a bruising nomination campaign nears the end. He also does well among nonaligned voters, as independents favor him over McCain by a 48 percent to 32 percent margin.

Obama leads in the East, the West and in the South, while the two are essentially tied in the central part of the country, including the Midwest and the Great Lakes region, the poll shows. He leads among all voters under age 65 — including by huge percentages among those voters under age 30 — but trails McCain among those older voters by a 45 percent to 34 percent margin. Interestingly, Obama holds a 13-point edge among those voters age 50 to 64.

The survey hints that Libertarian Bob Barr could do some serious damage to McCain by stealing support among the very conservative and libertarian voters. Barr wins 10 percent support among those self-described “very conservative” voters, and wins 22 percent among philosophical (not necessarily “capital L”) libertarians.

Hamilton Jordan Dies

Jon Ponder

Today:

Hamilton Jordan, the former top strategist and aide to Jimmy Carter, died Tuesday night after a long battle with cancer.

Friends said death came at around 7:30 p.m. and that he was comfortable and surrounded by friends. His son, Hamilton, Jr., return[ed] from Europe in time to be with his father…

He was 63 years old.

Jordan was a key advisor and strategist for Carter during the 1976 presidential campaign and during Carter’s administration. He was White House Chief of Staff in 1979-1980.

House GOP’s 2008 ‘Families Agenda’ Signals Defeat on Gay Rights, Abortion

Jon Ponder

After three straight losses in special elections, including the loss of the seat held by former Speaker Denny Hastert and two seats in the Deep South, the House GOP is in a panic.
“When you’re losing, people are suspicious if you change. Republicans have defined themselves on these issues for three decades.”
— Congressional scholar
Based on the new “American Families Agenda” House Republicans released this week, the results from their polling and focus groups were scorchingly clear: Normal Americans are concerned with kitchen table issues like jobs, healthcare and gas prices — as well as George Bush’s botched occupation of Iraq — not with rightwing obsessions like oppressing gay people and transferring control of women’s reproductive organs to government bureaucrats. These and other red-meat issues for the GOP base are completely absent from the new agenda:

There’s not a single mention in the 47-point program of such red-meat GOP issues as banning abortion, outlawing same-sex marriage, allowing prayer in the public schools, banning flag burning and protecting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Instead, the plan focuses on such GOP-introduced ideas as allowing private sector workers to take compensatory time instead of premium pay for overtime worked (HR 6025) or permitting full tax deductibility for most medical expenses (HR 636).

In an effort to appeal to moderates in their uphill push to retake the House, Republicans have pushed divisive social issues off center stage and replaced them with a host of pocketbook items they hope will appeal to working women, moderates and even some Democrats.

Julian Zletzer, a congressional scholar based at Princenton University, said the Republicans retreat from issues favored by its base is risky because it sends a signal that they are losers. “When you’re losing, people are suspicious if you change,” he said. “Republicans have defined themselves on these issues for three decades. It’s much harder to divorce yourselves from them.’’

The risk here, of course, is that the GOP base will feel abandoned. Who needs two Democratic Parties, they might ask.