HarperLee

From the above article at Huffington Post, Jason Linkins, March 5, 2008:

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Still, there's been a lot of hand wringing in the past week about media fairness in the Democratic race. Who was the media treating unfairly, Clinton or Obama? My thought: neither! The most unfairly abused party in the race has been Obama's supporters, who are widely derided as a glassy-eyed cult of personality whose support is insincere, naive, and based on their propensity to faint dead away when they are in Obama's presence. I say "most unfairly," because unlike the two candidates, they don't have a voice in the media. They don't have an avenue to defend themselves. No one is writing SNL sketches for them.

These poll numbers indicate that Obama's supporters aren't quite the scorched-earth, anti-Hillary Kool-Aid drinkers they've been made out to be. On balance, the Obama support registers in the numbers, but a clear sign of fair-minding comity is also indicated.

Credit is due to the eagle-eyes over at 1115.org, who also note that the recent Pew poll shows that Obama's supporters are more likely to stay in the Democratic camp if their candidate doesn't get the nomination:

More Clinton supporters would switch to McCain if Obama is the nominee than Obama supporters would if Clinton is the nominee: "A quarter of Democrats (25%) who back Clinton for the nomination say they would favor McCain in a general election test against Obama. The "defection" rate among Obama's supporters if Clinton wins the nomination is far lower; just 10% say they would vote for McCain in November..."

This may not end the "Obama supporters as cult" meme, but it should.
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Link to entire article: Exit Polls: Obama Supporters Aren't Cultish - Politics on The Huffington Post

cheapseats

It also points to Obama's vulnerability in the General Election, does it not?

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BillCosby

How does that measure against the huge percentage of ppl that will vote against her regardless of who runs against her???

Also I believe that hillary & mcbush are quite similar.. Corp politicians that vote for war etc............. Makes sense to me if that is what you are looking for..........

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

HarperLee

Glad you mentioned that! Scott Reed on NPR's election special today
said that half the electorate likes Hillary; half the electorate hates her.
(Her negatives have always been there, but her supporters seem to think that magical thinking will make her pereptual negatives just go away.)

McCain could slip into a coma and still defeat her.

BillCosby

Yep..... Her tough guy & experience will be rubbed in her nose........

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

itsmeeeeeee

well, when you consider that the popular vote majority belongs to barack, and few barack voters would vote for mc cain if she wins than hillary voters would if he wins the nomination... i'd say it shows clearly, that barack is the wiser choice, for yet ANOTHER reason!

it clearly shows that hillary supporters are the bigger babies and sore losers... if they can't have their way, they'll take their balls and go home, or give the white house to another "mc bush".

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cheapseats

Maybe I read it wrong.

No question, about your latter remark...that Obama supporters purport to have more Democratic Loyalists. But that means they WILL vote for Clinton, rendering her stronger against McCain.

Clinton supporters demonstrate either a greater tendency toward center/right of center or a greater tendency to peevishness but, either way, more of them claim they will jump party, rendering Obama less strong against McCain.

Call Hillary's bluff. Obama supporters can make the EXACT same claim. They can even buffer it by saying something along the lines of "Alrighty then, if that's the way you wanna play, Obama supporters will LIKEWISE vote for McCain in the event of a brokered nomination in Hillary's favor.

Make it a bloodbath.

Trouble is, McCain keeps coming out on top.

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Kana

The one factor left out of these calculations are the number of independents Obama might attract. He'd lose some of the more right-wing Democrats, but he could gain some left-wing independents.

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Groovyville

mudwhistle

I don't see what the order of preference among three candidates has to do with the religious fervor Barry O's supporters have for him.

It gets shown on this site every day.

-THey have emotional expericences based on his speeches.
-They can't tolerate criticism of their leader
-They don't know why they believe in him; they just do

None of this has anything to do with them saying they would rather vote for another socialist before they vote for a war hero.

HarperLee

That has been mentioned several times n NPR and MSNBC today -- the Independents and (believe it or not) Republicans who would vote
for Obama, but would never vote for Clinton.

If I see any substantiating articles, I will post them.