Edwards only democrat not beaten outright by any republican...

[Postman]

http://firedoglake.com/2008/01/14/the-polls-you-wont-hear-much-about/

1) McCain is by far the GOP's strongest candidate in the general election. (Rudy would be stronger, but he's not going to make it past South Carolina, much less to the nomination.) He trounces Hillary 49% to 38%, and beats Obama 46% to 43%. In fact, the only Democrat who beats him is none other than John Edwards, who decisively beats McCain 46% to 39%.

This is why it's a good idea for Michigan Democrats to engage once again in the time-honored tradition of crossover primary voting to vote for Romney and deny McCain a win in the Michigan primary: It blunts McCain's momentum, and convinces Romney to stay in the race at least through the South Carolina primary, which is a good thing as Romney will force McCain to spend money he doesn't have on him to spend. (And if Romney does win the nomination, he's much easier to beat, money or no money.)

2) John Edwards is by far the Democrats' strongest candidate in the general election. He is the only one who is not beaten outright by any Republican candidate: He ties with Giuliani at 44% each, but easily beats McCain, Thompson, Romney, and Huckabee, the latter two by double-digit margins.

3) Hillary Clinton is the weakest Democratic candidate in the general election. She loses to every single Republican except Fred Thompson and Ron Paul, and neither of those two gents is going to get the Republican nomination for president.

4) Barack Obama is in between Edwards and Hillary Clinton in strength in the general election. He does much better against Rudy Giuliani than either Edwards or Clinton, beaing Giuliani 37% to 47%, yet against every other Republican, especially McCain and Romney, Edwards is the Democrat that does the best.

[smokey nj]

1. K&R!!!!

[lonestarnot]

2. Go go go Johnnie go.

:applause:

[madeline_con]

3. I thought Giuliani was running at #7

according to the news earlier this evening. I guess it depends on the sourse. :shrug:

[waiting for hope]

4. Is there any other choice?

I want my country back! and with no surprises. eom.

[kurth]

5. Edwards is the ONLY Democratic candidate feared by the corporate overlords and their RW lapdogs

[flyarm]

6. helloooo folks..it is all about elect-ability!!

when are dems going to figure that out?? that is why we keep losing..and that you can put at the doorsteps of the DLC!!

fly

[fooj]

18. Here's the chart...

[spooky3]

7. another key point--the more they get to know him the better they like him

"The upshot of all this: If Hillary's the Democratic nominee, we could very easily lose to any likely GOP nominee. If Obama's the nominee, he does OK so long as he doesn't face McCain. But if Edwards is the nominee, we're sitting pretty. Which, I suspect, is one reason why Big Media hates John Edwards so much and does everything it can to destroy him. (Speaking of which: KingOneEye at DailyKos pointed out this morning how the NYT is ignoring a key result of its own poll on the race -- namely, that as more people get to know him, Edwards' favorability rating keeps going up.)"

(see the link to a .pdf in the firedoglake post in the OP).

[tritsofme]

8. Edwards supporters like to talk about a "media blackout" well that works in different ways.

By being "blacked out" of intensive media coverage Edwards now serves the purpose of being a "generic Democrat" in polls.

If he were by some stretch of the imagination to win the nomination he would receive the same constant scrutiny that Hillary and Obama have over the past several months and his numbers would likely come back down to earth.

[Postman]

11. So if the media focuses on Edwards' history of kicking the crap out of corporations...

his numbers will go down?

Of course they won't cover THAT part of his history, it'll be his investments in a Hedge Fund, $300 haircut, Gazillion square foot mansion all the while touting himself as being the champion of the Middle Class...but while they're reporting that they're ignoring his Rags to Riches youth, his "son of a mill worker" background, his history of fighting for the little guy against indifferent corporations when it comes to consumer safety...

If all that makes John Edwards a hypocrite, then FDR, the President from a Hyde Park mansion -that created Social Security, The Wagner Act, Minimum Wage, SEC, FDIC - must have been the king of hypocrites.

[tritsofme]

12. Yes, that's exactly what I think.

Because I'm sure the media will focus on nothing else.

[natrat]

9. will democrats get it?or just keep supporting losers

[SammyWinstonJack]

30. What do you think?

:-(

[natrat]

34. i think we are fucked and McCain wins unfortunately

[AzDar]

10. For the love of Dog...Vote Edwards!!!

[Omega3]

16. It's about winning elections Dems...

VOTE EDWARDS!!!

:kick:

[Yael]

13. 2) John Edwards is by far the Democrats' strongest candidate in the general election

Bears repeating.

:hi:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

14. Yep

pretty simple stuff here.

Vote against corporate control.

[Canuckistanian]

15. Then why do the delegates not vote for him?

Who are these delegates and why do they vote so differently than the national polls?

[spooky3]

17. what do you mean by "these delegates"?

[flyarm]

19. depending on the state laws for chosing delegates ..your vote will decide who gets the delegates.

eom

[spooky3]

21. according to today's WaPo, the Dems require that delegates

(other than superdelegates, I guess) be apportioned according to the votes they get. The Republicans allow different states to choose different methods, e.g., one state may have an electoral college-like system where all delegates go to the winner. I believe the parties get to determine these rules since it has to do with their delegates.

So it seems to me that, for Dems., the question is why voters (rather than delegates) prefer one candidate vs. another--in Canuckistan's post, s/he was referring to the poll results, and I think these poll questions were asked of voters rather than delegates.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402926.html

"Clinton and her two main Democratic competitors -- Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former senator John Edwards (N.C.) -- are approaching Feb. 5 in strikingly different ways than the Republicans are. In part, that is because the rules for allocating delegates are different, with Republicans holding many contests. In a lot of the Republican competitions, the winner of a state or a congressional district is awarded all delegates. For Democrats, delegates are distributed proportionally on the basis of the votes for each candidate."

There's more info in the print edition than online.

[mzmolly]

24. Because Hillary is using the "I can win meme" and Edwards isn't mentioning it.

He needs to tweak that message a bit to not only "I represent a strong working class" but "I will win."

[onehandle]

20. kick! nt

[mtnester]

22. I believe everyone will be mightily surprised when this horse race is over

mightily

[SammyWinstonJack]

31. Oh I hope so! I really do!

[mzmolly]

23. His mistake is not MENTIONING THIS ad nauseam.

His message needs to be, "In order to have change, one must win and I will win!"

[KansDem]

25. The day after the Iowa primaries, there was no mention of Edwards in CorpMedia

Edwards came in second, but it was all "Hillary--Obama." I thought to myself, "Where's Edwards? He came in second! I think that is significant!"

[Yael]

26. WHY are people ignoring this?

Do they think we are going to win on the mere virtue of people hating Bush?

[RiverStone]

39. I can't fathom the reason.

Consistently, JE is our most electable candidate across geographic regions and socio-economic groups.

A Hillary nomination very likely equals defeat in the GE.

Obama is a toss-up.

I don't get why folks don't pay more attention to this - maybe all that M$M spinning and JE does not have the BIG money???

Though if common sense prevailed, JE would be our leading candidate. Maybe he will get some MO after NV...

Lets hope!

[AzDar]

27. Kick ...

:kick:

[PATRICK]

28. I can think of a reason

that seems at first to lessen that polling. Edwards may be weaving through the radar and simply not getting the negative attention that loses votes the same way that the Hillary/Obama "slugfest"- mild as it is compared to a ruthless GOP campaign- is doing among voters(GOP? Independents? Dems?) that are considering voting Democratic. The test of the two-horse contest is driving away voters being bombarded by the competition to be Avis- and attention away from Hertz(we try harder).

The good news is that it really is helping Edwards. That poll increase- even if created passively- can quickly become a powerful force to be an alternative- in the primaries as well as the general mulling over the national election. It is a classic primary/convention advantage for the unperceived rising challenge.

In other words you are trying to get at the voters translating that statement of position into a real primary result. You decry the media- whose downplaying of Edwards(maybe because he is more immune in reality to the dirt machine) is boosting that pressure cooker advantage. Indeed, they are standing in the way of a cash handicapped campaign. Stop and think however of the poll not as another resume highlight but as a dynamic they are actually creating, waiting to break through or be unleashed.

And whose campaign is actually smarter because it has to be? Vibes and details tell me, though I know little, that we have a dynamic advantage building and the self-fulfilling smart vibrant campaign to make it startlingly real. Get frustrated, get steamed. Stay positive. There are no guarantees, but if the battle for delegates grinds on, it is very, very, very possible by historic standards that by the time Edwards might emerge, it will be a very earned and dynamic turnaround that will have steamrolled over and bypassed those who tried the "forget" hypnosis on the American public. Because of the hostile nature of the media it would in retrospect(sigh of relief) look like their eating of their own, their inability to put the brakes on their Hillary hatred and their spotlighting of the rookie Obama, would have destroyed their main danger to edwards as the eventual nominee.

Then it would turnaround in the fall and Edwards would take the heat but by then it would too late. Think Clinton vs. Dole only with a vast, firestorm vengeance.

I amy not be right or rightly informed or many other things. If the feeling spreads though, it can be so.

[AntiFascist]

29. K&R, and the reason is...

Edwards can appeal to the anti-elitist anti-corporate greed elements of both the left and the right, much like Lou Dobbs but without the xenophobia.

[Kurovski]

32. K&R. (nt)

[Plucketeer]

33. He's the only one looking presidential

The other two are vying for American Idle! :puke:

[iris5426]

35. and we don't hear about this on the news because....

its almost like the msm not only doesn't like edwards message, but also wants to see the repubs win the general election...

[CorpGovActivist]

36. K&R n/t

[SoCalDem]

37. Here's the thing that bothers me..

ANY dem should beat ANY republican runnign this year.. After the fiasco we have been living with for 8 years, to even THINK that a republican could get elected, boggles my mind.

Bush did not act in a vacuum.. For MOST of the years he dictated, he had a gleeful little band of cohorts who joyfully sold us all out..

The fact that this election is being sold as "close", pretty much tells me that my :tinfoilhat: needs very little adjustment..:wtf:

[Skittles]

38. keep voting for the white penis everyone

it's the only way we can ever win elections!

[venable]

42. not sure what your slant is, but if you're being anti-white male...

for the sake of it, you need to think a bit about whether BO and HRC would really want your support.

I don't know if you're serious or not, but when anyone says something so profoundly stupid as this, my support for Edwards increases. And, guess what, I'm supporting him with no regard for who is white or black or male or female. Pretty radical, huh? Maybe he's the best candidate, for every shape, color, gender in this country, with the notable exception of the super-rich.

But go on with this stuff, stay in touch..you know, send some postcards from the dim margins of thought.

[Skittles]

43. LOL

you completely do not understand at ALL

[venable]

44. please illuminate nt

[Vocano Gods]

40. How exactly does crossover voting work?

[ooglymoogly]

41. K&R