Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Obama and Coakley

I'm sure the main reason Barack Obama's not going to campaign for Martha Coakley is that either a) the White House isn't that worried about her or b) they want to minimize the extent to which the President gets blamed if she does somehow manage to lose or only wins by a small margin.

What's interesting to note in the poll that we did on the race though is that Coakley is actually more popular than Obama- she has a 50% favorable rating while he has a 44% approval rating.

Now certainly you can make the argument that the reason for that is the conservative lean of likely voters at this point, and that if Obama showed up and changed the electorate he would have better approval numbers among those planning to go and vote.

But his visits in Virginia and New Jersey never did put any dent in the poll numbers- in fact Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell saw the polls move slightly in their direction after Obama's visits to their state. So there's an argument to be made that an Obama visit could actually have had more of a negative effect on Coakley than a positive one. But at this point it's academic.

7 comments:

  1. But Obama did send at least one of his nominees to help - Michael Meehan, who is an Obama nominee for the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The end result was the further nationalization of the Chicago Way, which the public display of the Chicago Way by Meehan could turn the election as people don't want that as that is not change for the better.

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  2. A very telling observation!! The dems (including their "anointed one", obama) are really getting concerned! I love it!

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  3. Any word on timing for a new poll?

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  4. Interesting to note in your poll that you list Glenn Beck as a Republican - he is not.

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  5. Hey guys, about your poll. Glenn Beck is not a Republican.

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  6. I was thinking that it was a mistake for Obama not to visit MA. I thought he decided not to go because he didn't want to look weak in terms of helping Haiti. I also had a sense that he knew he didn't do folks in VA or NJ any good. This way, if Coakley loses, then Obama doesn't look so bad. Even his little YouTube endorsement of her was weak. My gut feeling is that he was probably relieved a disaster in Haiti kept him out of the voter turnout business.

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  7. Suffolk University poll: Brown outpolls Coakley in every region of the state except Suffolk County. Brown 50, Coakley 46, Kennedy 3. (Brown within 5 points of Coakley with women)

    When I first requested a PPP poll on MA, I specifically reminded you that Christie won a majority in a three-way race in NJ. Now it seems Brown may do the same in MA.

    And if MA goes red, where can the Democrats win?? Maybe you should poll Pelosi-Dennis (CA-8) and Leahy-Britton (VT)... because no one who championed Obamacare is safe.

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