July 8, 2008, - 12:34 pm
Word Poll Holds More Bad News, Silver Linings for McCain
By Debbie Schlussel
An Associated Press-Yahoo News poll holds more bad news for the John McCain campaign, with a few silver linings.
Asked what words come to mind when they think about the two major Presidential candidates, the most popular (19%) first word for McCain is “Old.” For Barack Obama, it’s “Change.” (19%)
I’ll start with the main silver lining first, which is that the 1,759 adults surveyed in the June poll are just random adults, not likely voters or even registered voters. So, whether or not they represent those who will be voting and deciding the Presidency in November, is unknown.
The second silver lining: the second and third most popular first words for both:
* McCain: “Military Service” (9%); “Record, Qualifications” (8%)
* Obama: “Lack of Experience” (13%); “Dishonest” (9%)
Let’s hope the ones who chose these phrases are the ones voting.
Which words first come to mind for you on these two guys? Take the full poll.
McCain’s problem is that he is trying to be Obama-lite. It won’t work. Some phony conservatives are pleading with him to at least give lip service to a few conservative principles, but he won’t do even that. It’s not a question of which campaign strategist is running his campaign, it’s his basic ideas, what he stands for, coupled with his tremendous ego. The question for me is whether the Republican Party has any potential at all for conservatives; there are a few conservatives in the House, a couple of partial conservatives in the Senate, but no one of the type we need now, like Jesse Helms.
c f on July 8, 2008 at 1:37 pm