Monday, May 05, 2008
When the voting is finished in
Indiana and
North Carolina, the Democratic Primary competition will move to West Virginia on
May 13. That’s a competition Hillary Clinton will be looking forward to with eager anticipation. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the race shows that
Clinton attracts 56% of the Likely Democratic Primary Voters while
Obama is supported by 27%. Seventeen percent (17%) are not sure.
Those results are virtually identical to an earlier election poll conducted in
mid-March.
Clinton is viewed favorably by 72% of West Virginia’s Primary Voters, Obama by 48%. Clinton’s numbers are unchanged while Obama’s ratings have dropped five percentage points.
Clinton will need a big victory in West Virginia to help bolster her talking point about winning the most popular votes. While Obama supporters dismiss this talking point as meaningless, it will be repeated many times in the coming weeks and months. Still, the former First Lady has but one path to the nomination—stay close and hope that Obama makes a mistake.
In West Virginia, 72% say they’re at least somewhat likely to vote for Clinton over McCain in the general election. However, only 56% say they’re somewhat or very likely to vote for Obama.
Seventy-eight percent (78%) have followed recent news stories about Obama’s former Pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Fifty-seven percent (57%) say it’s likely that Obama shares some of Wright’s controversial views. Those figures are similar to the
national averagefor
all voters, not Democrats
.
Nationally, the race between Obama and Clinton remains close in the Rasmussen Reports daily
Presidential Tracking Poll.