As Clinton and Obama continue pandering to crowds in hopes of winning the Indiana primaries, a small revelation has come to light. Well, not really a big surprise… Republicans dig Obama over Clinton.
At Clinton’s rally here, the state’s top Democrat and her main backer, Sen. Evan Bayh, seemed to be lowering expectations, telling the Sun-Times that Clinton started way behind rival Barack Obama, “he has outspent her 2-1, and he has won every other state that borders Illinois. I think it’s very close — it could go either way.”
A surprising number of registered Republicans — who can pull Democratic ballots on Election Day — came to both events.
“We were with eight Republicans last night and six of them are voting for Obama,” said retired firefighter Dan O’Neill, 63.
“I like how family oriented he is,” said Caroline Harlan, a 26-year-old Republican. Obama had his wife and daughters with him all weekend.
Exit polls show most Republicans who have crossed over to vote Democratic in this primary voted for Obama, responding to his message of reaching out to work across party lines. That bodes well for Obama in this Republican state.
“She’ll win the Democrats,” Bayh said. “The others, I’m not so sure.”
At the Clinton event, registered Republican Sally Anepper, 53, was deciding whether to vote for Clinton or McCain, but not Obama.
“His pastor’s anti-American comments really bothered me,” she said.
As hard as he has tried to move past Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s bombastic comments, Obama spent the first 20 minutes on “Meet the Press” Sunday giving the same answers to the same questions about why he gave Wright the benefit of the doubt for so long.
So basically, folks who are listening to Obama himself are more likely to vote for him than those who listen to others either once affiliated with him, or reports about him. Which could be quite disastrous for his campaign when considering everything that has been going against him; Rezko scandals, Rev. Wright’s comments, and all the still lingering suspicions of some (somehow they’re still out there- believe me, I’ve met some of them) that Obama is a Muslim.
In her Sunday-morning appearance on ABC, Clinton was asked to name a single economist who supports her plan for a summer gas-tax holiday, which Obama continued to blast Sunday as a “gimmick” that would save drivers little and torpedo road repair projects.
“I’m not going to put in my lot with economists,” Clinton said.
“Who understands what you’re going through?” she asked the crowd at Indiana Tech. “People drive a lot of long distances in Indiana. I’ve driven a lot of long distances in Indiana. I think between my husband, my daughter and me, we’ve made 95 stops in Indiana. We believe Indiana matters.”
Obama and his wife have made 28 stops in Indiana.
Clinton said she watched as a pick-up truck driver spent $63 to fill just half a tank of gas.
Clinton has the Midwest cred in her past, and that could work in her favor in Indiana.
With both candidates neck and neck at this point… I’m sorry. I really can’t pretend to be anything but put off by this entire long lasting ridiculous fiasco that does nothing but continue to highlight the glaring deficiencies of all the parties involved, and I can’t wait until the primaries are over, and even the election itself, so I can stop being inundated with all of this nonsense, and we can finally find out what direction our country is going to go in with the leadership of the next Commander in Chief.
Popularity: 3% [?]
