http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/fi...ns-would-not-vote-for-clinton-2007-03-27.html Campaign 2008 Fifty percent of adults would not vote for Clinton By Kelly McCormack March 27, 2007 Half of voting-age Americans say they would not vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) if she became the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, according to a Harris Interactive poll released Tuesday. More than one in five Democrats that participated in the survey said they would not vote for Clinton. Overall, 36 percent say they would vote for the former first lady and 11 percent are unsure of their top choice. Forty-eight percent of Independent voters also said that they would choose another candidate over Clinton, the poll, which surveyed 2,223 potential voters, states. Fifty-six percent of men said that they would not vote for Clinton, while 45 percent of women said that she would not be their pick. In addition, 69 percent of those 62 and older said that they would not vote for Clinton. Nearly half of the respondents said that they dislike Clintonâs political opinions and Clinton as a person. Fifty-two percent of people also said that âshe does not appear to connect with people on a personal level.â
Interesting, although this type of a poll probably matters quite a bit less than one might think. The "voting-age Americans" aren't the ones who decide. First, more than half of them don't bother to vote; it's not a random half, either. Second, for better or for worse, the US elects the President and Vice President indirectly, through Electoral College (unlike almost all the other nations), so not even a mere plurality -- let alone a majority -- of the popular vote is required to win the office.
This is the number one problem facing Hillary. After nearly 15 years in the national eye, a majority of Americans just don't like her. She may be the most-despised First Lady in history. Most, like Barbara Bush, are revered by the public. Or, like the current First Lady, people don't have strong feelings one way or the other. It seems the American public did not care for Hillary's nontraditional First Lady role, or for her either. Part of this is no doubt related to her abrasive, cold personality, part to her hard left politics and take no prisoners style, and part to the persistent stench of corruption that has enveloped her since her Arkansas days. People instinctively feel that she has traded on her husband's political success. If George W. Bush was born on third base and confused that with hitting a triple, Hillary was carried there by her husband and is equally confused about how she got there. Playing the electability card is tricky for hillary's rivals. They risk appearing as part of the "vast rightwing conspiracy" or as not being team players. Plus, they have to realize that she is the favorite, and until the Obama boomlet got started, they were all running for the VP slot anyway. If a candidate, say a handsome young black man with a Harvard Law degree and a compellling personal story, begins to look like a serious threat to her, then the electability issue could move front and center with disastrous results for her. That is why she must be beginning to really despise Obama. Her entire strategy is based on her inevitability, on the idea that she has it locked up already, and he is spoiling that.