Aside from his book tour a month or so ago, former Democratic V.P. candidate John Edwards has been laying low, letting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton share the limelight for a while.
Edwards has been content to keep a low profile and continue to talk about an otherwise ignored problem in America. Poverty. Who besides Edwards among the 20-or-so presidential aspirants is talking about the growing numbers of working poor in the country?No one.
But someone must be listening to Edwards, based on recent bits of polling information.
The Des Moines Register reported today that Edwards is by far the leader in a poll of likely participants in the first-in-the-nation caucus, the Iowa caucus. Edwards polled at 36%, with Hillary Clinton second at 16%. Barack Obama was third at 9% and favorite son, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack polled at 9%.
Meanwhile, deep in the bowels of last night's NBC/Wall Street Journal poll were some numbers that showed Edwards was the only Democratic hopeful to beat GOP frontrunner John McCain in a one-on-pairing. The Nation took a look at the numbers today.
McCAIN LEADS CLINTON IN LA TIMES POLL
McCain topped Clinton one-on-one in the WSJ/NBC Poll, 47% to 43%. And from the Los Angeles Times today comes a further indication of Clinton's possible weakness in a general election. A Los Angeles Time/Bloomberg poll shows Clinton trailing McCain 50% to 36%.
Even more startling are Clinton's numbers again Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who hasn't shown a lot of oomph in recent poll on the GOP race. In the LA Times/Bloomberg poll, Clinton tops Romney by just 6 percentage points in a one-on-one faceoff.
IN NY, THEY LIKE CLINTON BUT PATAKI IS JUST SO-SO
The news is a little better for Clinton in a recent Quinnipiac University New York State poll. The senator's job approval rating is at 72%.
In the same poll, outgoing New York Gov. George Pataki, who is weighing his chances for the GOP presidential nomination, was said to be a "great' governor by only 5% of New Yorkers. Some 46% said he was "so-so," while 38% said "good" and 9% called Pataki a "bad" governor. OBAMA PAC GETTING SUPPORT OF 'THE LITTLE GUY'
The Chicago Tribune reports today that Barack Obama is gaining not only in recent polls, but in another measure of polularity - dontations. The paper says Obama's PAC has raised more than a million dollars this year, most of it from small donations from individual supporters.
2 comments:
Rumor has it that during the 2004 primary season, Edwards was the candidate that Karl Rove was most worried about. He's articulate where Bush isn't, and his ideas will actually help the poor and middle classes, while Bush's policies hurt them.
Here's hoping he can go the distance in the 2008 campaign.
Assuming Edwards is the Dem nominee and depending on whom is the Republican candidate, Edwards is going to have to come up with a good counteroffensive for attacks that he made his money via frivolous lawsuits. I'd like to see Edwards out front on this now so that it's not an explosive issue later on.
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