Poll: Republican support, enthusiasm down

[Yellowdogtexan]

This is interesting. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/13/poll.republicans/index.html-- The Republican party may face tough times at the polls come November, according to results of a new national survey.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Survey out Friday indicates that 2008 may not be a good year for Republicans up and down the ticket, even though most national surveys indicate the race for the White House between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama is quite close right now.

Sixty-three percent of Democrats questioned say they are either extremely or very enthusiastic about voting this year. Only 37 percent of Republicans feel the same way, and 36 percent of Republicans say they are not enthusiastic about voting.

"Republicans are far less enthusiastic about voting than Democrats are, and enthusiasm has plummeted among GOPers since the start of the year," said Keating Holland, CNN polling director. "There was already an 'enthusiasm gap' in January, when Democrats were 11 points higher than GOPers on this measure. Now, that gap has grown to 26 points."

"Bottom line: After eight years of the Bush presidency, Republicans are demoralized," said Bill Schneider, CNN senior political analyst. See how people responded to the survey »

Fifty-three percent of registered voters questioned in the poll say they think that Obama, D-Illinois, will win the election, with 43 percent saying that McCain, R-Arizona, will win.

"In recent elections, the public has a good track record at predicting the outcome of presidential elections. Most polls which asked this same question in 2000 and 2004 showed more Americans predicting a victory by George W. Bush over John Kerry or Al Gore. The public also correctly forecast that Bill Clinton would beat Bob Dole in 1996," Holland said.It appears that republican voters are depressed and demoralized. I do not blame them given the mess that bush has created and what a weak candidate they have.

[Judge Smails]

This is interesting. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/13/poll.republicans/index.htmlIt appears that republican voters are depressed and demoralized. I do not blame them given the mess that bush has created and what a weak candidate they have.

I read that article as well. Very interesting, especially the part about voter predictions.

[Yellowdogtexan]

The GOP is meeting in Houston and they are grumpy. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5826424.htmlAfter a decade of political dominance, the Texas GOP is opening its party convention in Houston this week with a troubling prospect: Grumpy Republicans may not turn out to vote this fall.

Many of the grass-roots Texas Republicans see presumptive presidential nominee John McCain as not conservative enough. Others still support presidential candidate Ron Paul. Some are unhappy over immigration, high federal spending, a sagging national economy and rising gasoline prices.

"A lot of them, and rightly so in many cases, are mad. They're concerned," said Roger Williams, chairman of the Texas GOP's voter turnout efforts this year. "What we've got to do is alleviate those concerns and get them to vote."

"We're the underdogs, and anybody who tells you we're not hasn't been out and about," Williams said.Grumpy and depresssed GOP voters do not turnout which will be bad news for mc :cane

[Judge Smails]

Another reason for them to be depressed:


House of Representative members of the Republican Party are falling tens of millions of dollars behind fund-raising estimates, stoking concerns of significant party losses in November.

The Republican leadership's own figures illustrate the shortfall, the National Republican Congressional Committee reporting GOP lawmakers only managed to raise $27 million, compared to expectations of approximately $58 million.

The news was another blow to House Republicans, who have recently lost three special elections to Democrats, and are dealing with an internal matter involving the theft of over $700,000.

House Republican leader John Boehner is trying to rally the party to raise more money. Republicans have suffered a steady decline in campaign fund-raising since losing control of Congress in 2006.

As of April 30, the cash on hand for the NRCC was reported at $6.7 million, compared to $45.2 million reported by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Source: NY Times

[Wabash]

This is interesting. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/13/poll.republicans/index.htmlIt appears that republican voters are depressed and demoralized. I do not blame them given the mess that bush has created and what a weak candidate they have.

Bush aside...McCain is a liberal to moderate...NOT a Conservative! He's no different than Hillary or Obama on many issues......

Like I said many times in the past....with all the brilliant minds and clever, smart folks in the USA....this is the best the DNC and GOP can offer us? Pathetic!

[Yellowdogtexan]

Bush aside...McCain is a liberal to moderate...NOT a Conservative! He's no different than Hillary or Obama on many issues......Wabby is not alone in this opinion of mc :cane. mc :cane has far more problems with his base or the base that elected bush compared to Senator Obama. Obama is not going to lose the vote of the Clinton supporters to any great extent once these supporters know mc :cane's positions on reproductive rights but mc :cane is going to have a heck of a problem convincing wabby and others that mc :cane is a true conservative.

[Yellowdogtexan]

Just to tie things together. If the base is not excited about mc :cane, they will stay home. bush won by turning out the base in record numbers and I do not think that will happen in this election. Wabby for all his flaws represents a portion of the GOP base and if he does not believe that mc :cane is a conservative them mc :cane has some work to do in order to get the turnout that he needs

[Lone Laugher]

Yes, YDT...but Wabby and his ilk are simply setting up excuses and rationalizing in the face of an overwhelming defeat at the hands of Barack Obama and the Democratic party.

It takes the sting away a bit if they say they don't want McCain either.....even though they will fight tooth and nail to try and get him elected. The only flaw that they are willing to express about the guy is that he is "moderate" or "not conservative enough" and that is supposed to make the rest of us think that they don't want the guy as POTUS. They nominated him. They love his pro-war, anti-Muslim, anti-abortion, fiscally irresponsible ass. He's a fucking war hero!!!!!! He has no problems with understanding the facts about Iraq....he's got the right attitude on Iran.....he's an economic genius....and...did I mention...he's a fucking war hero??!!!....the un-swiftboated kind, too.

[issac the dragon]

I don't like the idea that the guy with the most money wins. I didn't like it when the Republicans did it and I don't like it now that the Democrats are doing it. A democratic election is supposed to be about electing the person who is believed to be the best, not about who has the most money. So I'm not thrilled that Obama is ahead in the money game.

Normally in our nomination process, the person who is able to convince the majority of their party that they are the best canidate wins easily. In this election that didn't happen. The Republicans did not give it their best shot because the odds were against a Republican winning no matter who he was. So McCain won by default.

The Democrats got so excited about nominating a woman or a black that they lost sight of the fact that neither of them was the best canidate. And now both partys have made their beds and the American people are going to have to sleep in it for at least four years. Whoopee.

The Democrats are going to have a hard job ahead of them irregardless of how bad the people in this country want to get rid of the Republicans. Don't think that every one is going to vote for Obama because he is pro-choice. He is still a man who has a very narrow resume and often changes his policies every other day when he is forced to make a real stand. As he did with the embargo on Cuba. And the fact that he is going to push us deeper into debt than we are now. He has made way too many promises. I don't doubt that Obama will win, but I think it will be a very narrow victory.

[Trueblue]

He's ahead in the money game because of small contributors. Not large corporations, and not rich people.

[Matt]

The money game is what has taken the pubs over the finish line for a long time. The way they use that money is the swiftboating technique. Too many don't check the facts ~ just buy into the sounds bites of the last days.
We certainly had evidence of that in the final weeks of the senatorial race in TN in 2006.

The Dems had two very good candidates running who happened to be a woman and a black.
The only concern is that too many people still harbor prejudices against blacks. They are getting better at masking them. Most don't just come out and tell you this like they did in W. VA.
But they will take any little thing and run with it as a guise for being against Obama.

It is going to take some major bucks and a very good organization to counter their efforts.
Just stay alert Dems. There is still much work to be done.
Let's make sure they don't Rover over us again.

We have a very good, intelligent, forward thinking man as our presumptive nominee who happens to be black.
We do not have a candidate selected because he was black.

[Yellowdogtexan]

He's ahead in the money game because of small contributors. Not large corporations, and not rich people.
mc :cane is relying on large contributions to the RNC. The special interests are making $50,000 or more contributions to mc :cane right now while the average Obama controbution is around $100. That is a large difference.

[issac the dragon]

I don't care where the money comes from. I said it shouldn't be about the money, not that it matter where it came from.

Yes, some people are bigoted. That was known going in. And some people are nervous when they look at places like Detroit and Washington D.C. The Republicans are reminding them of those two cities run largely by blacks at every opportunity. They don't even have to bring up Detroit. They just say D.C. and every one knows what they mean. Haven't the Republicans been doing just that in the Senate every year since the city got home rule?

I am proud that the Dems didn't allow bigotry to stop them from electing Obama. But they did know this was going to happen. The bigots are beyond help. The other major problem is that you don't want to accept that all anti-Obamaism isn't about race.

[Yellowdogtexan]

This is amusing. Texas republicans are not too happy with mc :cane and you get the impression that they may not be motivated to go vote http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/06/15/0615texgop.htmlU.S. Sen. John McCain has the support of most Texas Republicans who attended the party's state convention that ended Saturday, though there's disagreement over whether the party's expected presidential nominee will electrify voters this fall.

Delegate Robert Etzel, a Del Rio lawyer, paid $12 for a McCain for president ball cap; he expects the November election to come down to differences between McCain and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, on taxes and spending.

But, Etzel said, "I don't think anybody is all that enthusiastic" about McCain's candidacy. "McCain is not a very enthusiastic type of guy."

Roger Williams, the former Texas secretary of state chairing the state party's 2008 get-out-the-vote effort, said he has heard conservatives fret about McCain, whose history of teaming with Democratic senators on various issues causes heartburn for some. ....

Jared Woodfill of Houston, chairman of the Harris County Republicans, supported former Sen. Fred Thompson for president at the start of the election year before switching to Huckabee after Thompson exited.

Of McCain, Woodfill said, "I didn't know him."

Woodfill had concerns coming out of the primary that individuals who had backed other candidates wouldn't unite behind McCain, potentially dampening turnout in the county, where Democrats seek gains in local races mirroring a Democratic sweep of local offices in Dallas County in 2006.

Woodfill said his concerns have faded, though, because Republicans are intent on coordinating voter turnout for candidates up and down the ballot. "We need to lock arms and come together," he said.

A few delegates can't stomach McCain.

Delegate Gregory Banville of Houston, a supporter of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul for president, plans to vote for Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr, a former U.S. House member.

Banville called McCain weak, saying, "I don't see how he has a chance at all unless people vote only because they don't like black people."

While some said racism would play would play a role in November, other activists vigorously disagreed. Refugio alternate Jennifer Steele said, "It's going to come down to different views and their differences in experience."
I have not doubt that some Texas republicans will be voting for mc :cane because they are racists and do not want Senator Obama to be elected. I also expect that most will turn out if only because of the Senate race on the ballot in order to vote for Senator Boxturtle (because Texans do not want normal people to have the right to marry box turtles).

[Trueblue]

I have just been in Texas.

The stated concern for some I talked to related to the Second Amendment. That is all some people really care about. Others only care about never raising taxes, all the while wanting raises for themselves, not getting that the reason for raises is often cost of living.

And yet when you talk to them, most people, whether they carry guns or not, have about the same views on gun control. Most people believe that there must be some reasonable restrictions on ownership.

[Yellowdogtexan]

Bush aside...McCain is a liberal to moderate...NOT a Conservative! ......Wabby, they were selling a pin that you would have loved at the Texas GOP Convention in Houston this weekend http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/06/stick-a-pin-in-it.html
"I will hold my nose when I vote for McCain"