NY Daily News: Middle America no fan of Bloomberg's liberal stances

[DeepModem Mom]

Middle America no fan of Bloomberg's liberal stances
BY MICHAEL SAUL and KIRSTEN DANIS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Tuesday, July 17th 2007

....Bloomberg's left-of-center positions on some crucial issues and his jet-setting life barely cause a ripple in New York. But if he runs for President, he'll have to explain a few things to Middle America, according to an exclusive Daily News poll....

In a test of how well Bloomberg sits with voters nationwide, the survey asked 600 respondents whether they were more or less likely to support him after learning something about his background.

He got 10% of the vote in a theoretical race with Hillary Clinton (40%) and Rudy Giuliani (33%). After learning more about him, 13% of respondents picked Bloomberg.

But some positions hurt him more than others.

Bloomberg gets slammed for his stance on gay marriage, which he personally favors. After hearing that, 45% of voters said they were less likely to support him; only 17% said they were more likely.

His anti-gun crusade goes over better than, say, the National Rifle Association might like you to believe, especially with women. Overall, 41% of voters approved of his position; 33% did not.

He also would have to defend his position on immigration....

***

Another 42% said they were less likely to cast a ballot for Bloomberg after hearing he is against the death penalty.

Bloomberg's personal life - the billions, his divorce, his confessing to smoking marijuana in younger days, his Jewish religion - got a big yawn from voters.

"Anything about him personally seems not to matter at all," said pollster Mickey Blum....

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/07/17/2007-07-17_middle_america_no_fan_of_bloombergs_libe.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. So people were slightly more inclined to support him after hearing about him?

That doesn't sound too bad. All he needs to do is pick a more-conservative running mate to "balance" the ticket and blunt the liberal bent a little, and hopefully, that will peel off a good number of R's. I am beginning to believe he won't hurt Dems--we've got strong candidates, they don't.