November 20, 2007
As The Holidays Begin, Campaigning Doesn't Slow Down
This week, Americans have turkey on the brain. But with a pushed-up primary schedule and the first-in-the-nation caucuses only six weeks away, it seems the holiday season and the campaign season will go hand-in-hand.
Several of the 2008 presidential candidates are not breaking from their busy schedules to celebrate Thanksgiving this week. Arizona Sen. John McCain will use the holiday recess to take his seventh trip to Iraq, while Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joseph Biden will head to Iowa to serve meals with their families and celebrate the holiday with supporters, according to The Caucus.
Meanwhile, a new poll shows some candidates would be more welcome at American dinner tables than others. Quinnipiac University pollsters asked likely voters which candidates they would most like to share their Thanksgiving meals with, and perhaps not surprisingly, the front-runners of each race were perceived to be the most desirable house guests.
On the Republican side, Rudy Giuliani got the most votes, with 22 percent of respondents, including 26 percent of Republicans, saying they'd like to break bread with the former New York City mayor. Fred Thompson was second most popular among Republican voters with 21 percent, followed by McCain with 16 percent and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 10 percent.
Hillary Rodham Clinton was the most coveted guest in the Democratic race, with 27 percent of all respondents (and 42 percent of Democrats) saying they'd choose to invite the former first lady into their homes. Barack Obama ranked second overall and among Democrats, followed by former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
Back in the real world, these three leading Democrats are locked in a neck-and-neck race in Iowa, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll [PDF]. Obama leads the pack in the Hawkeye State for the first time, with 30 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers saying they'd support the Illinois senator. Clinton garnered 26 percent and Edwards 22 percent, putting the three in a virtual tie, with the rest of the candidates trailing far behind.
The poll shows that the message of "change" is currently trumping the message of "experience" among Iowa Democrats, and Obama seems to be benefiting from it. Fifty-five percent of respondents said having a new direction and new ideas was more important to them in a candidate than having strength and experience. Democrats said they viewed Obama as being more honest and more understanding of voters' problems than Clinton. The New York senator, however, was still cited as the strongest leader among her Democratic rivals and the candidate with the best chance of winning the general election.
Graphic: Ryan Merrill
Posted at 11:50 AM
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Campaigns, Democrats, Republicans, WH 2008
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