Democratic Primary Voters and the Netroots

This article could be describing the netroots.  But it's not.  It's describing the attitude of New Hampshire Democratic primary voters towards Hillary Clinton.

Dick Bennett has been polling New Hampshire voters for 30 years. And he's never seen anything like it.

"Lying b** . . . shrew . . . Machiavellian . . . evil, power-mad witch . . . the ultimate self-serving politician."

No prizes for guessing which presidential front-runner drew these remarks in focus groups.

But these weren't Republicans talking about Hillary Clinton. They weren't even independents.

These were ordinary, grass-roots Democrats. People who identified themselves as "likely" voters in the pivotal state's Democratic primary. And, behind closed doors, this is what nearly half of them are saying.

"I was amazed," says Bennett. "I thought there might be some negatives, but I didn't know it would be as strong as this. It's stunning, the similarities between the Republicans and the Democrats, the comments they have about her."

Bennett runs American Research Group Inc., a highly regarded, independent polling company based in Manchester, N.H. He's been conducting voter surveys there since 1976. The polls are financed by subscribers and corporate sponsors.

He has so far recruited 410 likely voters in the 2008 Democratic primary, and sat down with them privately in small groups to find out what they really think about the candidates and the issues.

His conclusion? "Forty-five percent of the Democrats are just as negative about her as Republicans are. More Republicans dislike her, but the Democrats dislike her in the same way."

Hillary's growing brain trust in the party's upper reaches already knows she has high "negatives" among ordinary Democrats. They think she can win those voters over with the right strategy and message.

But they should get out of D.C., New York and L.A. more often, and visit grassroots members.

Because we're not talking about "soft" negatives like, say, "out of touch" or "arrogant."

We're talking: "Criminal . . . megalomaniac . . . fraud . . . dangerous . . . devil incarnate . . . satanic . . . power freak."

Daily Kos or MyDD comment thread?  Nope.  New Hampshire.

Tags: Connecticut, CT-Sen, Joe Lieberman, Ned Lamont (all tags)

Comments

5 Comments

Re: Democratic Primary Voters and the Netroots

Bill Clinton: Hillary Clinton
Curt Cobain: Courtney Love

Just saying.

by Mark Matson 2006-08-07 08:20AM | 0 recs
Bwahahah

Best laugh all day :P

by delmoi 2006-08-07 02:41PM | 0 recs
Re: Democratic Primary Voters and the Netroots

by delmoi 2006-08-07 02:41PM | 0 recs
Good.

I've warmed up to Hillary a little bit; since it seems so likely she'll win the nod. But her support, cheerleading, for the Iraq war in 2004 really disgusted me.  She's turned it around and is criticizing the president, and to be honest I feel kind of bad for all the Iraqis who are, to be honest, probably going to have a rougher time of it if we leave.

But she should never have supported the war and bush in the first place. It was just as bad in 2003 as it is today, even though it wasn't as politically harmful.

(btw, sorry about the empty comment above)

by delmoi 2006-08-07 02:45PM | 0 recs
Re: Democratic Primary Voters and the Netroots

And those were the comments they could print!

Imagine what it would have looked like online!

by Aquaria 2006-08-10 06:46PM | 0 recs

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