Loving and Hating candidates
Posted by Moonage on 25 Jan 2006 | Tagged as: 2008 Presidential Race
The Gallup Poll just released these numbers:
Now, I’ve made the observation in the past that polls are pretty irrelevant. That’s only true if you don’t ask the right question. The only question that I think matters in an election is "Who would you most definitely NOT vote for". It’s like this, the two strongest emotions are love and hate. The huge gap between the two are a state of flux. With any person, some days you can take them moreso than others. But, if you love someone, you pretty much always love them. Now, regardless of what anyone tells you, no one LOVES a politician. They may admire them a lot, but, the average voter does not LOVE their candidate. If they do, they’ve got issues. Love your spouse. Love your kids. Admire a politician. That only leaves one pure emotion, hate. Or, something really close to it. Although only a handful of people might truly LOVE a candidate, a LOT of people find it in themselves to hate politicians. So, the only question IMO that means anything six months or a year from now is how do you FEEL about a candidate. That "definitely not vote for" will only get larger. The "definitely vote for" and "consider voting for" will flux with the "no opinion". What you can surmise from the above numbers at this point is that fewer people will feel compelled to vote AGAINST Rice than feel compelled to vote AGAINST Clinton. It has always been my second theory that the least unpopular candidate on election day wins. In this case, it’s Rice in a mandate. 51 to 46 nationwide is a complete blow-out. Add in those that don’t hate either candidate and you’re still talking a minority of the vote. These are big important numbers for Rice and Clinton IMO. I’m surprised Rice’s number is that high, she’s really not done anything I can think of to get people to hate her, other than being associated with Bush. However, a majority MIGHT vote for her. But, more importantly, a majority MOST likely would vote against her opposition.
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