Clinton struggling with her likability problem
Updated: 2008-03-28 11:53
If the story of last week's polls was how tough a month March had been for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a headline in many of this week's polls is that New York Sen. Hillary Rodman Clinton suffers from a pronounced, if not entirely new, problem - she rubs a lot of people the wrong way.
That is coming more to the fore because nearly all the polls indicate that Obama is moving beyond his big problem - the controversy over the rhetoric of his ex-pastor, Jeremiah Wright.
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Although a large chunk of voters still say they are personally offended by Wright's remarks,a Pew Research Center survey released Thursday reported that fifty-one percent of all voters said Obama did an excellent or good job of handling the controversy versus 42 percent who said he did not. About two-thirds of Democrats gave him good marks, about two-thirds of Republicans gave him poor marks, and independents were more evenly split.
The Pew Survey and one released yesterday by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal concluded that the Wright controversy had not caused lasting damage to Obama's campaign based on the fact that Obama had not lost ground in the horse race against Clinton and Arizona Sen. John McCain.
However, Pew differs from yesterday's NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in the numbers. The Pew Survey, conducted March 19-22, says Obama is ahead of Clinton 49 percent to 39 percent, with a 5.5 percent margin of error where yesterday's NBC/Journal poll had them deadlocked at 45 percent each. That poll was conducted March 24-25. Gallup's daily tracking poll, conducted March 24-26 has Obama ahead 48 percent to 44 percent with a 3 point margin of error.
But one race Obama is winning by the numbers is the favorability race whether the measure is positive/negative reactions to the two, or traits that voters like or dislike about each.
Here's a collection of findings on this score from a range of polls:
- Obama bests Clinton among Democratic voters by margins of 15 percent to 20 percent on the traits of being "down to earth," "inspiring" and "honest," according to Pew. More Democrats think Clinton is "phony" and "hard to like" than they do about Obama.
- Pew said the things Democrats most dislike about Clinton are her personality, the idea that she has "too much baggage," and that she is too ambitious.
- Again Pew: Demonstrating Obama's appeal beyond just Democrats, 70 percent of all voters say they find him inspiring, 67 percent say he is down-to-earth, and 65 percent say he is honest. More than half of Republicans agreed on the first two traits and 46 percent agreed on honesty. The figures for all voters were roughly the same as the figures for independents.
- The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll said 48 percent of Democrats in its survey viewed Clinton as somewhat or very negative versus 37 percent who had very or somewhat positive perceptions of her. Two weeks ago, 45 percent viewed her positively, and 43 percent viewed her negatively. Obama is viewed positively by 49 percent of voters and negatively by 32 percent.
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