CNN poll: "Hillary Rodham Clinton" beats McCain for '08, 51% to 44%...

[DeepModem Mom]

but McCain beats "Hillary Clinton" by 1 percentage point.

Poll: Spare the 'Rodham,' spoil her election
October 20, 2006

(CNN) -- If presidential elections were held today, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would likely have a comfortable edge over Sen. John McCain, but take away her maiden name and McCain has a better shot of landing in the Oval Office.

So say the results of a CNN poll released Friday by Opinion Research Corp., which asked 506 adult Americans whom they preferred among potential 2008 presidential candidates. The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 4.5 percent.

Asked if they preferred Hillary Rodham Clinton to McCain, respondents gave the Democratic New York senator and former first lady a 51 percent to 44 percent advantage over the Republican Senator from Arizona. Remove "Rodham" and McCain had a 1 percentage point advantage, 48 percent to 47 percent.

The results fall within the sample's margin of error, so there is a "good chance, but not a statistical certainty" that Clinton's maiden name would help her in a matchup against McCain, said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director.

The results are consistent with earlier testing that indicated Clinton's favorability rose when her maiden name was included in the question, Holland said....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/20/poll.08/index.html

[qazplm]

1. if the maiden name

makes THAT much of a difference, then voters are truly stupid.

[BluegrassDem]

2. So you'd vote for McCain over Hillary?

I'm impressed she got over 50%. That's a good poll for her.

[MercutioATC]

4. That wasn't the contention...

...the contention is that people are voting for names, not people.

That makes them stupid.



(...and I agree)

[fuzzyball]

20. Voters are generally UNinformed, lazy, and have no clue

w.r.t. platforms of any party.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. There are many, *many* Hillarys. CNN is merely....

scratching the surface.

[JI7]

5. fools

[talk hard]

17. u should be happy

[tblue]

6. Holy shi-ite! Maybe people are getting hip to McCain finally.

That's just weird about the results differing based on which name you use.

[TheWraith]

7. What the f--k?

Different middle name, different results? That's simply bizarre.

[Awsi Dooger]

8. It could be the middle name Rodham

Might have surreal political sway, previously unknown. Maybe Lamont should try it.

[fuzzyball]

21. Ned RODHAM Lamont sounds great LMAO

[CarbonDate]

9. Actually, if anything....

...I'd say this demonstrates how unreliable these polls are.

Seriously, is she going to run as "Hillary Rodham Clinton" as a result of that?

[DeepModem Mom]

10. She always appears on the ballot as "Hillary Rodham Clinton"...

according to the article.

[WatchWhatISay]

11. CNN Lies

They want so bad for Hillary to be our candidate

[Guava Jelly]

12. Thats a joke

Mccain would obliterate Hillary.

[bowens43]

13. they only polled Democrats...........

[wyldwolf]

14. do you have an alternate source of information?

[wyldwolf]

15. I find two things amazing about this thread so far

The first, obviously, is that Hillary leads McCain (for the first time?) in a major poll. Maybe the anti-Republican wave has extended to the Presidential campaign level (which officially starts in 18 days.)

The second is the few posters who have either a deep dislike for Clinton or are so rabidly protective of their own pet candidate that they refuse to acknowledge a simple fact. Clinton IS the frontrunner at this moment in time (Just like Howard Dean was for half the primary season in '04 and Kerry was the rest of the way.) It could change. We know this. But CNN is not making this up.

Hillary Clinton is our frontrunner, and the first poll has here ahead of the GOP's frontrunner.

[Clark2008]

16. And national polls don't mean squat.

In order to win a national, general election, one has to win the majority of a combination of each state.

Hillary STILL will not accomplish this because she cannot flip any red states - states we need in order to secure the numbers for the Electoral College.

In other words, half of the people POLLED here, in total, may vote for her, but that doesn't mean that more than half of Georgia, Tennessee, Virgina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, North and South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, etc. will vote for her, which is makes this whole poll moot.

You have to poll individual states and compare them with the Electoral College to get a full picture - and Hillary will NOT win any of the red or reddish-purple states. Sorry.

Polls are a gauge and all this poll does is say that Hillary in 2006 is the Lieberman of 2002.

[wyldwolf]

18. So? That hasn't been the problem these people have...

Their problem is that it is Hillary.

Hey, can't wait to see if you quote national polls on Wes Clark in the coming months...

[Sensitivity]

19. The "WEAK SEX" Factor -- "RODHAM" adds need Illusion of Strength

of personality that the name "Hillary" does not have.