Obama overtakes Clinton for Democrats
Presidential hopeful Barak Obama has made up huge ground over rival Hillary Clinton, but nearly one in six voters still think he is a Muslim, a new poll showed today.
Democrats no longer see Mrs Clinton as the party’s strongest contender for the White House, but Mr Obama is also suffering from their prolonged battle, the AP-Yahoo News poll said.
Voters of all types have got a better sense of Mr Obama, who was an obscure Illinois politician just four years ago. As more people moved from the “I don’t know him” category in the poll, more rated him as inexperienced, unethical and dishonest. And 15% think he is a Muslim, thanks in part to disinformation widely spread on the internet.
However, his positive ratings have climbed as well, while Mrs Clinton – widely known since the early 1990s – has been less able to change people’s views of her. And when those views have shifted, it has hurt her more than helped.
Her ratings for being honest, likeable, ethical and refreshing have fallen since January, and Mr Obama scored higher than she did in all those categories.
In a dramatic reversal, the poll found that a clear majority of Democratic voters now say Mr Obama has the better chance of defeating Republican John McCain in November’s presidential election.
In late January, before Mr Obama scored 11 straight primary and caucus victories, 56% of Democrats saw Mrs Clinton as the stronger nominee, compared with 33% for him. Now, he leads on that question, 56% to 43%.
The poll, conducted by Knowledge Networks, contains some worrisome signs for the first-term senator. Those rating him as “not at all honest,” for example, jumped from 18% last autumn to 27% in April. It came as he was put on the defensive over incendiary comments by his former pastor. But many holding such views are Republicans or conservative independents who would be unlikely to vote in a Democratic primary or support a Democrat in the fall anyway.
The most encouraging sign for Mr Obama is that many Democrats who previously saw Mrs Clinton as their party’s best hope now give him that role. About one-third of them still prefer her , but they have lost confidence in her electability.
If Mr Obama wins the nomination, the poll indicates he will need to mend his image as he battles Mr McCain for independents and soft Republicans. His favourability rating among all voters has declined, with those ranking him as “very unfavourable” growing from 17% in January to 25% in April. Most of them are Republicans and independents.
In January, 30% of Republicans rated Mr Obama very unfavourably. That grew to 43% in April. Among the coveted independents, 12% had a very unfavourable view of him in January. That has nearly doubled to 23%.
Mr Obama would be the first black president, and the survey detected some evidence of racial discomfort in voters’ minds. It found that about 8% of whites would be uncomfortable voting for a black man for president. It produced an estimate of about 13% of Republicans who would feel that way, but suggested very few if any Democrats would now be uncomfortable. In November, about 5% of Democrats indicated discomfort at voting for a black person for president.
The survey of 1,844 adults was conducted between April 2 and 14.
