Do You Support Hillary Or Not?

[ThomWV]

Over the last couple of months I've watched ever poll that was posted here to see if I could figure out how the progressive wing of the Party feels about Hillary's would-be candidacy. The little polls are worded a hundred different ways, but the underling question is do you support Hillary or someone else. Of course there is no great accuracy to this or any other on line poll but time and time again the results come up the same.

So here is the poll question, do you support Hillary's quest for the nomination or don't you. Every other time she has got about 25% support here. I'm reasonably certain it will come out that way this time too, even though Hillary supporters believe the world is with them.

[bookman]

1. Not in the primary

But if she is the nominee I would vote for her.

[William769]

2. It's a Hillary world what can I say.

[saltpoint]

3. I'm a general election Democrat. If Sen. Clinton is our nominee, I'll support the

ticket.

In the primaries I prefer the other 7 announced candidates.

I prefer Mario Cuomo and Bill Bradley to anyone on earth.

[maddiejoan]

8. I would actually

run thru a wall of fire to vote for Mario Cuomo.

One of life's great mysteries to me is why he was never President --or certainly our Chief Justice.

Truly one of the USA's greatest minds.

[saltpoint]

10. Bartender! A cold beer for Ms. maddiejoan. And make it snappy.

Yes. Cuomo's strictly top-drawer.

[speedoo]

4. She is not electable.

Rethugs would tear her apart. Will they do it legitimately? Of course not, but they will do it anyway.

[maddiejoan]

11. They've been tearing her apart for 15 years.

She's still standing -and standing strongly.

So I don't understand your point.

[speedoo]

20. Right, and they will step up their attacks even more.

You think she is standing strong now, I don't. She seems to be saying she has more experience than anyone else, and I think that claim is weak at best.

I explained my point, you disagree. The rethugs are licking their chops over taking her on in the general election. And it's very clear that many dems are not ready to work hard for her.

[Captain Hilts]

21. The RNC is counting on folks like you! nt

[speedoo]

25. Wow. Brilliant comment.

Instead of talking about how you see her overcoming rethug attacks and a split among democrats over supporting her, you give us a cliche. Great.

[Captain Hilts]

32. I had the misfortune to do some work with the RNC, met Rove a couple of times and understand...

how they operate.

Again, they're counting on folks like you permitting yourselves to be manipulated by what they say.

Vote for the candidate of your choice, not theirs.

[speedoo]

37. The RNC is not manipulating me.

I have been seeing through their bullshit since Nixon and I am not about to allow them to manipulate me now.

I base my decisions and opinions on what I know and based on that I will not support her. I won't think about voting for her in a general election, because I actually dread her being the democratic nominee.

[maddiejoan]

24. She's leading in all national polls.

and what else are they going to throw at her?

They are out of ammo against her.

As far as ready to work hard for her? You have zero data to back that up.

I know I'll be working harder for her than candidate in my lifetime, and I've been voting since Jimmy Carter.

[speedoo]

31. National polls mean very little at this point.

What is important are the trends in Iowa and NH and they are not pretty for her.

Rethugs don't need additional ammo. They will make shit up and you know it. They hate her and will make their attacks on Gore and Kerry look like a walk in the park.

If you think she will get enough dems to work hard for her, you are dreaming.

I've been voting since JFK and right now, IMO, she has potentially less democratic support in a general election than all the democratic nominees since then other than McGovern and Carter when he ran against Reagan.

[maddiejoan]

38. National polls have everything to do with the point you were making

Iowa and NH polls have to do with Iowa and NH.

She's been taking a barage from the GOP for 15 years, and she still has a national poll lead.

THAT's the point.

Not all democrats are as left of center as we are on DU.

I think you underestimate the moderate Dems that Hillary speaks to, the same that flocked to her husband will ultimately flock to Hillary.

Also --unlike Gore and Kerry --Hillary won't stand still for the attacks. The media will eat up every word she utters, she'll recieve free press coverage from every sound bite that falls from her lips.

The problems with the Gore and Kerry campaigns is that they did not excite the media. That certainly won't be Hillary's problem.

I'd also remind you that Gore and Kerry both actually won their respective elections.

If we want a Democrat in the Whitehouse --it's WE that are going to have to make sure that the election isn't stolen again.

[speedoo]

41. I disagree.

National polls right now do not reflect people actually starting to think about who they prefer. Iowa and NH reflect the choices people will soon be making and therefore have more meaning.

You're right about one thing: Hillary would be a more exciting (I think a better word is controversial) candidate than Gore and Kerry were, but I see that as a negative. It's a negative because the rethugs hate her, and a lot of dems simply don't like her. Dems don't like her because of a) the foreign policy decisions she's made, and b) the way she comes across... she's just not a very likeable person.

And to your point about responding to the expected rethug attacks, if her counterattacks against Obama are any indication, I don't expect her to be vey succesful.

[maddiejoan]

44. The Reublican attacks haven't started yet.

The National polls DO reflect what the Republicans have had to say about Hillary for the last 15 years.

I disagree on her "likeability".

I find her to be the most "likeable" of all candidates with the exception of Biden.

[speedoo]

48. Right. The fact that so many (is it 50%?) nationally won't vote for her...

is a reflection of 15 years of rethug attacks. And they have not even gotten started attacking her for 2008. When they do, that 50% figure is likely to go higher, making her even more unelectable.

And if more people like her as you do, why do so many say they will never vote for her?

[maddiejoan]

50. Uhm

It's not an atypical percentage of negatives for a Democratic frontrunner.

[speedoo]

52. Really? You have a link to back that up? nt

[Dems Will Win]

42. They are keeping they're powder dry, they know Bill has had multiple affairs and even

broke up a marriage in Westchester. They are waiting to drop this on her after the nom is sewn up. With 50% unfaves already, she's toast with just a few more points in the never gonna vote for Hillary. Just enough voters will vote against her because of Bill'ds affairs in 2002 with Belinda Stronach and Lisa Belzberg -- unfortunate but true.

Obama is a new face and far more electable than Hillary.

[maddiejoan]

45. I think you over estimate

how much the people of this country even care about whether Bill sleeps around.

At this point Bill sleeping around would come across as pleasant nostalgia.

Obama is a new face, I don't see any data to back him being more 'electable'.

[gollygee]

She is not my first choice but I will vote for her if she gets the nomination

I'm probably the only one who thinks we have several good candidates to choose from.

[maddiejoan]

12. I think every single one

of our candidates is a stellar option.

Wouldn't have to hold my nose for any of them.

[baldguy]

5. In Nov 08, I will vote for the Democratic candidate for President

I would PREFER that it not be Hillary.

[Imagevision]

6. If Obama wasn't a candidate, yes.

[journalist3072]

7. I proudly support her candidacy. eom

[BooScout]

9. I support her.

If Gore was running I may possibly support him though......but he is not running and truth be told I have never completely forgiven him for picking Lieberman as his running mate. That showed a lack of forethought in his case that helped to cost him the election (yes I undertand Bush stole the election, but it was close before he stole it and I think had Gore chosen another person for his VP choice he may have had a much wider margin.

Point of interest. I am a far left Democrat. I do not agree with Clinton on some issues and I don't like some of her actions regarding the Iraq War. However, she has my support as the best candidate for the job so far that the Democrats have put forward.

[maddiejoan]

15. my feelings exactly

nothing to add.

[toadzilla]

13. Shes pretty much my last choice, however...

if she wins the nomination, I will do everything within my power to help get her in elected.

a smart, non psychotic president sounds like a dream come true at this point.

[IsItJustMe]

14. More of the same, only a somewhat kinder and gentler version of what we have had over the last seven

years.

[maddiejoan]

17. That's just ignorant.

What we would have is a slightly more left version of the Bill Clinton Presidency.

[IsItJustMe]

27. Just an opinion, but then again you may be the enlightened one, I'll give you that. I have no

attachment to this one way or the other.

[Captain Hilts]

34. How come more folks don't look at the record and see that? nt

[maddiejoan]

39. Because they just want to fold up --

-- under the opposition's hatred of Hillary.

They've allowed themselves to see Hillary through Media eyes.

Hillary's record puts her to the left of Obama and Edwards, but you'd think listening to people on DU that rant on HRC that she's a rerun of *.

It's ridiculous. Look at her record and her policys. She's got a left of BJC platform, with a voting record to back it up.

[Kucinich4America]

55. Left of WHAT, exactly?

Bill Clinton was what I would like to call the "best REPUBLICAN president of my lifetime". Certainly more tolerable than Reagan or anybody named Bush, but not a liberal by any stretch of the imagination. Hillary is considerably further to the right than Bill was, and it's not "posturing to the center to win the vote and then she'll go to the left after she's elected", and if it was, I wouldn't support her anyway, because I'm sick and tired of the Democratic party pandering to the sick fucking bastards who are destroying this country.

There isn't a left leaning bone in Hillary's body. I doubt there ever was, given her Republican origins.

[maddiejoan]

56. You couldn't be more incorrect.

Hillary is certainly a left leaning moderate with Bill slightly more centrist than Hillary.

Is Hillary a true liberal? Nope.

Does she have one of the most progressive voting records as a Senator? Yup.

In practice, she is certainly left of everyone except Kucinich, Dodd and Gravel.

Some Edwards' supporters and some Obama supporters may disagree with this, but their candidates' records don't bare out their assertions.

[gateley]

16. Not in the primary. If she gets the nom, she has my full support. nt

[LWolf]

18. NO. n/t

[peacebird]

19. Not in the primary.

I hope she doesn't get the nomination, because I cannot support her if she does.

:hide:

[Lucinda]

22. Your basic premise is a little flawed. DU does not reflect the general population.

If the world was as DU is, Dennis would be the clear frontrunner.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

23. Not. She exceeds the pain threshold of my nose.

[Hidden Stillness]

26. I Cannot Vote "Yes" or "No" on This

I will vote for her if nominated, never for a Republican, and I kind of like her and kind of have reservations about her--all the multiple corporate ties, on the board of Wal-Mart, the "D"LC I-will-only-meet-with-corporations approach, etc. I hope that if she actually wins, that real Democrats in Congress who care about people and how the sinking economy is killing them, will keep her in line; people like Sen. Sherrod Brown, Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Bernie Sanders (Ind.), etc. I always thought I would be so excited and thrilled when a woman finally had a chance to win, I remember trying to get my Mom to vote for Shirley Chisholm, 1972, I would be thrilled if any number of other women ran, such as Sen. Barbara Boxer, our Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, (she can't, Canadian-born, and has said she did not want to anyway), etc., but Hillary Clinton is so corporate, that honestly, I don't consider her to be any more of a "woman's" candidate than anyone else. Has she ever done anything for women--not corporations?

All the same, though, many of the greatest male "heroes" on DU--Al Gore, Cuomo, etc.--foisted NAFTA, GATT, "privatizing" Government, which I heard from Cuomo going back to the '80s or whatever it was, etc., and so they have been their own disasters, too. My vote, which is no vote here, is I don't really support her with enthusiasm, (it would be like cheering for Wal-Mart and rich investors), but I will vote for her; who I will vote for in the Primary, I don't know. I would just as soon vote for Chris Dodd.

[sandnsea]

28. I'll vote for her in the GE, that's it n/t

[FreeStateDemocrat]

29. I never will, if it becomes evident that she will coronated our nominee I

intend to remove my name for the voter-rolls and withdraw for any active interest in politics. It will be the final proof that the ruling class with their corporate sponsors have taken complete control of our democratic process. I have long known that the working person cannot expect any fairness where large amounts of money are involved so I will quite wasting my time and become more involved with the more enjoyable aspects to life. I have voted Democratic since JFK but the sellout by our elected representatives has pushed me to the edge of complete apathy.To Hill and her supporters I bid a bitter AMF.

[HockeyMom]

30. Voted for her twice for Senator

Won't in primary (if I CAN vote in Florida primary). I will support whoever is the Dem candidate in general election.

[Greyhound]

54. Did you work for IBM? Tata? n/t

[Occam Bandage]

33. Not in the primary. Certainly in the general. And DU is not representative of anything but DU.

[blondeatlast]

35. Undecided, but there are a few candidates that will not get my primary vote, Ms. Clinton

among those.

I can hold my nose long enough to vote for a more sane SCOTUS and Cabinet next November, though, if one my mon-primary choices gets the nod.

[Richard Steele]

36. No, I do not support her bid to be the Democratic Party Nominee. nm

[stray cat]

40. if she wins the nomination - absolutely!

[L. Coyote]

43. Where is "I support ALL the Dem candidates. Geeez, silly damn question!"

and a few not-so black and white options.

[Solar_Power]

46. No. She is the choice of the Corporations

[dysfunctional press]

47. not in the primary, and NOT in the general- i will NEVER cast a vote for her.

nt

[Perry Logan]

49. These polls are hard for ambivalent people like me.

[RiverStone]

51. NOT in the primary!!!

Rethug-lite Hillary does not represent anything other than the corporate/DLC wing of the party. IMO, she will not be our nominee.

Tho if she is...I'd vote for her (I am a Dem after all), but I would not work for her or even put up a campaign sign.

I'd happily work and canvass for just about every other Dem running, but not her --- my heart would not be in it. She is the MOST rethug of the group.

[Greyhound]

53. No, and like so many others I used to say that if she got the nomination,

I would reluctantly vote for her. But the more she talks, and squirms, and "triangulates", the more I feel that it is less and less likely that I would even vote for her if she gets the nod.

Like John Edwards has said, it would do no good to replace a gang of corporate thugs with a 'R' after their names with a gang of corporate thugs with a 'D' after their names. If the Republiks do end up winning, at least they will bear most of the blame for the shitstorm that is coming, and neither would do anything to make it more bearable for me.

[emilyg]

57. I support Sen. Clinton.

[mnhtnbb]

58. Edwards gets my vote--too late to make any difference in NC

[Cha]

59. Hopefully the World is changing

and it will evolve to a higher plane.

[Blue-Jay]

60. Nope. sorry.

To be pragmatic, I feel that her negatives outweigh her positives in a general election. I'd certainly vote for her in the GE if it comes to that however.