A new Harris Poll shows Barack Obama ‘closing the gap’ with Hillary Clinton. While the poll had Obama at 27% to Clinton’s 40% in May, now Obama is only down by 4 percentage points with 32% to Clinton’s 36%.
About the only thing those numbers can tell us is that it is anybody’s game. I wouldn’t put too much stock into them yet. 1) Because it’s too early in the primary season. 2) Because the primaries are a state-by-state race, not an overall national race. 3) Because this poll conflicts with polls that had a tighter survey schedule. This poll was over the course of 11 days while a more recent poll had different results and just occurred within the past 3-4 days.
What is consistent though in this poll and across previous polls is Obama’s ability to pick up voters on the other side of the aisle. While Hillary still gets mainly Democratic voters, Obama picks up more Independents and Republicans in addition to Democratic voters. That will be key further down the line as voters think more about electability. I explain why Hillary is capturing so much of the Democratic vote but looks so unelectable for the general election in another post.
June 29, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Democrats need to look past the Democratic elections toward the national elections. Hilary stands a far less chance of being elected President than Obama, her disdain among Republicans is far too great. Obama, if the Democratic nominee, can pick up Independent and Republican support. The only issue left for Republicans is whether they can field a competitive candidate.