It's always been obvious that DU is not representative

[karynnj]

but one thread in DU-P shows how extreme this was. They asked people who they voted for in the primaries. Someone tallied the reponses from the first 112 and Kerry was the fifth best! Here are the tallies and percents. The poster then put in the real world numbers.

DU
Dean 26 votes (27.7%)
Kucinich 20 votes (21.3%)
Clark 19 votes (20.2%)
Edwards 16 votes (17.0%)
Kerry 13 votes (13.8%)

(Real World)
Kerry was most popular in the primaries:

Kerry - 60.8%
Edwards - 19.4%
Dean - 5.7%
Kucinich - 3.9%
Clark - 3.5%

From these numbers, Kerry is, if anything, doing better than last year in DU - for what it's worth.

[wisteria]

1. Thanks for the interesting post! n/t

[TayTay]

2. This place is overly liberal

in that unrealistic crunchy way. (I'm liberal. But there's liberal and then there's goo-gooey liberal. Sigh!)

[sandnsea]

9. leftists

In the very leftist meaning of the word. Not liberals. Not liberal Democrats. Not Democrats. Just leftists. Admitted Socialists and Communists. Who scoff at anybody for pointing out some of the views expressed at DU are extreme leftist socialist or communist.

Or moles. Never know for sure.

[JI7]

3. this is similar to the polls that were done during the primary campaign

for those who were on here then you will probably remember. it was funny because people would start them many times each day. and of course it was usually the supporters of the candidates who would get the most votes that would keep starting them.

[ginnyinWI]

4. well, this certainly does explain a lot!

No wonder we always get clobbered when we venture out of our nook. Yikes. And no wonder most of them are mad at Kerry.

[_dynamicdems]

5. Makes me wonder.

Where the rest of our 60.8% is hanging out, if not here.

[frogmarch]

6. This is a scary place

for moderates to hang out. I don't mean the JK forum, of course. None of my friends will join DU. Most of them have even stopped reading here. They think there are too many radicals here, and that some of them act like republicans.

Have to try something:

:patriot:GO JOHN KERRY!:patriot:

[Dr Ron]

7. It's not moderates versus liberals

It often is true that DU members are further left than the main stream, but the issues surrounding the Kerry bashing aren't really a case of moderate versus liberal. Kerry is actually more liberal than some of the politicians who are more popular around here. It is more a case of accepting reality versus a number of fantasies which are popular around here. (I'm sure you all could list these fantasies).

[BlueIris]

10. I love it when JK fans point out that JK is liberal on most issues.

Is he the Number One Liberal In the Senate? No. But didn't the National Journal folks have him at number seven last year? The record I've looked at couldn't even be called that of a "moderate." I'm comfortable with Kerry's liberality. I wish people understood that about him.

[Dr Ron]

11. Lifetime around 10

I'll have to dig up the exact numbers, but I believe that at the time he was number one on a condensed year (a meaningless result the Republicans exploited) he was about number 10 in lifetime votes.

What is amusing, with all the Kerry bashing here and at Kos, is that Kerry has a more liberal record than anyone else now considered likley to get the nomination.

[emulatorloo]

13. a good source for lifetime voting records -- adaction.org

http://www.adaction.org/

http://www.adaction.org/votingrecords.htm

Senate lifetime by state:

http://www.adaction.org/sen.htm

Harkin 92
Kerry 92
Kennedy 90
Boxer 96
Feingold 98

[_dynamicdems]

8. Hey, that's cute! n/t

[Noisy Democrat]

12. I enjoyed writing "Dean 04, Kerry 08"

in response to the "who did you vote for/who will you vote for" question. :) I did vote for Dean in the Michigan primary, in part because it was obvious Kerry was going to win the nomination (so my vote would make little difference) and I had no idea who he was. Meanwhile, I was angry at the way Dean had been trashed by the media. I wasn't a hard-core Deaniac -- when MoveOn had its poll on who to endorse, I voted for Edwards --, but I liked Dean and didn't like the unfair way he'd been treated by the media.

Now that I know more about Kerry, of course, I support Kerry all the way.