For Democrats, Primary Field Gives Confidence: Dems enthusiastic about choices, confident of victory

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: For Democrats, Primary Field Gives Confidence
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: September 4, 2007

MANCHESTER, N.H., Sept. 3 — Forget the “lesser-of-the-evils” talk typically heard from Democratic primary voters around this time of a presidential campaign. Interviews with dozens of Democrats here and across the country this Labor Day weekend found them enthusiastic about their presidential choices and, if slightly nervous about potential weaknesses in their candidates, confident of victory in 2008....

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...expressions of satisfaction from members of a party better known for quadrennial rites of grumbling do not mean that primary voters do not have some qualms about their leading candidates after months of getting to know them. Especially in the early voting states, like New Hampshire and Iowa, but also in other parts of the country where voters were asked over the last few days about their impressions as the campaign barrels toward the first primaries early next year, Democratic voters said that they were pleased to be able to select among Mrs. Clinton, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and the rest of the party’s candidates, but that they also continued to have questions about them.

Again and again, voters — often unprompted — said they were concerned that Mr. Obama did not have enough experience....Some expressed concern that Mrs. Clinton, as a general-election candidate, would be hurt by voter animosity that has accumulated over the years....And Mr. Edwards, who campaigned across New Hampshire last week, was rarely named by voters when they were asked who they were considering, suggesting the difficulty he continues to face in his second bid for the presidency against two better-known candidates running for the first time....

Still, this is a confident party this fall. In one sign of this, voters said they believed either Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama could win the presidency back from the Republicans....

The responses suggest a marked shift in mood for Democrats over the past year. There was no talk this weekend of Al Gore, the former vice president, or any other Democrat, coming to the rescue of the party. The findings were also another indication that Democratic voters appear as energized about this election as Republican voters are subdued, though that could change once the Republicans rally around a candidate and if Mrs. Clinton is nominated and turns out to be as polarizing a candidate as Republicans are hoping....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/us/politics/04dems.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

[TwilightGardener]

1. That last sentence is chilling...