{"id":1276,"date":"2004-02-19T11:07:03","date_gmt":"2004-02-19T16:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/1276.html"},"modified":"2004-02-19T11:07:03","modified_gmt":"2004-02-19T16:07:03","slug":"kerry-and-edwards-lead-bush-in-national-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/kerry-and-edwards-lead-bush-in-national-poll\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry and Edwards lead Bush in national poll"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you had any doubt about the benefits of the Dems’ nominating process so far, look no further than the latest poll from USA Today\/CNN\/Gallup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a hypothetical, general election match-up, Kerry leads Bush 55% to 43% among likely voters. More surprisingly, Edwards also leads Bush by a similar margin, 54% to 44%.<\/p>\n

I know we’re still very early in the election year, but for both<\/i> of the remaining Dem candidates to enjoy double-digit leads over the incumbent president is extremely encouraging news.<\/p>\n

These results also help reinforce the notion that we should keep the nominating process going. Kerry and Edwards are basking in the largely-positive public spotlight, emphasizing key points of the Dem agenda, and most importantly, highlighting Bush’s failures. The sooner the nomination fight ends, the sooner we’ll lose this edge. If for no other reason, Edwards’ strong showing in Wisconsin serves a broader benefit.<\/p>\n

Republicans have a predictable response to results like these: It’s too early to matter and Bush hasn’t started campaigning yet. The first point is largely true, but the second point isn’t.
\n
\nYes, it’s terribly early. In recent election cycles, national polls almost nine months before Election Day have had little predictive value. That said, these poll results may not tell us reliably what’s going to happen November, but they do underscore Bush’s vulnerability and should offer a confidence boost for Dems.<\/p>\n

The second point, that Kerry and Edwards are on the campaign trail while Bush hasn’t started his election year efforts, strikes me as completely wrong. Bush has been campaigning at least<\/i> as hard as any of the Dems.<\/p>\n

In fact, every time the Dems host a primary contest, Bush seems to follow up with a visit of his own. Two days after the New Hampshire primary, Bush was in the Granite State<\/a> to talk about his economic plan. Two days after the South Carolina primary, there was Bush in Charleston<\/a> for a speech. A few days later, Bush was in Missouri<\/a>, which, not coincidentally, had just hosted its own Dem primary.<\/p>\n

And let’s not forget Bush’s so-called “conversations”<\/a> with carefully-selected audiences in Michigan and Florida, and Bush’s photo-op at the Daytona 500.<\/p>\n

This is a president who’s never stopped<\/i> campaigning. With that in mind, Kerry and Edwards’ sizable lead over Bush has to be considered a meaningful development at this stage in the campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you had any doubt about the benefits of the Dems’ nominating process so far, look no further than the latest poll from USA Today\/CNN\/Gallup. In a hypothetical, general election match-up, Kerry leads Bush 55% to 43% among likely voters. More surprisingly, Edwards also leads Bush by a similar margin, 54% to 44%. I know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}