by Mark Silva
Talk about hot and cold.
That’s the way “feelings’’ run toward Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.
Yet most people have “warmed’’ up to Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
These are among the readings from a “feeling thermometer’’ that the Gallup Poll has used to take the temperature of the public’s attitudes toward the 2008 presidential candidates.
While 49 percent of those surveyed say they feel warmly toward Clinton, 44 percent say she leaves them cold – really another way of measuring the polarity of attitudes toward the front-running Democratic candidate. Few are neutral on this question.
And Obama, among all the leading candidates, has drawn the greatest percentage of warm feelings in this survey – albeit it just 53 percent and slightly more than some of the others, including Republican Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York.
Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who entered the race this week, is too new to the game to get a full reading of the feeling thermometer – because nearly a third of those surveyed had never heard of him and couldn’t say. But among those who had heard of him, feelings do run warmer than cold.
The feeling thermometer runs on a metric scale, offering people a zero to 100 scale on which to measure their feelings – zero the coldest, 100 the warmest. In its Aug. 23-26 survey, Gallup found that all five top-rated candidates in the race are known well enough by Americans that nearly everyone can rate them.
And Thompson, Gallup found, is “best-positioned’’ among the candidates who hold a lower public profile at this point. Among those lesser known still, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney registers more cold feelings among voters surveyed than warm.
This is how people responded to the candidates:
Barack Obama: 53 warm, 20 cold
Rudy Giuliani: 50 warm, 31 cold
Hillary Clinton: 49 warm, 44 cold
John Edwards: 47 warm, 32 cold
John McCain: 44 warm, 32 cold
Fred Thompson: 30 warm, 21 cold
Mitt Romney: 27 warm, 31 cold
Joe Biden: 22 warm, 24 cold
Bill Richardson: 20 warm, 18 cold
Mike Huckabee: 17 warm, 16 cold
Sam Brownback: 9 warm, 14 cold
For more, see the Gallup Poll’s report.
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Comments
100% of all baby bears polled said: "They're just right."
Posted by: Doug Zook | September 7, 2007 9:13 AM
Are these the same guys who brought us "who would you rather have a beer with - George W. Bush or Al Gore/John Kerry?"
What a waste of phone lines!!!
Posted by: BobinATL | September 7, 2007 9:27 AM
For the first time I get the feeling that Hillary won't be president.
This hot cold thing is what politics is all about.
We elect presidents based on "feelings," nothing more than "feelings."
From Kennedy to Reagan to Clinton and Bush, we get "feelings" about presidential candidates.
How do they make you "feel."
Hillary's negatives, as Rove pointed out last month, are so high it seems improbable that she could overcome them. The only difference might be in the debates. Lazario proved that taking on Hillary can be tricky.
Advice to Obama: stay away from the debates and head for "events."
Posted by: Bud McFarlin | September 7, 2007 9:41 AM
Bud, that would be Lazio proved taking on Hillary can be tricky. Actually, Lazio had an uphill battle anyway. He up against a First Lady, a Democrat in a state largely ruled by Democrats and one with name recognition far greater than his.
But in a race for president, taking on the opponent becomes more necessary than it does for Senate. It should be easy to exploit Hillary's weaknesses and double, triple, quadruple standards and positions.
Posted by: John D | September 7, 2007 10:27 AM
The Swamp reporter's Obama fan club is becoming increasingly desperate to find polls (even silly polls like the above) that support their badly trailing candidate. Anything to generate pro-Obama publicity.
The latest real polls, which the Swamp is avoiding mentioning, have Clinton over Obama 40%-21% (Rasmussen) and 42%-21% (Gallup).
Posted by: Bruce | September 7, 2007 10:38 AM
RNC Bruce,
The only one desperate around here - is you!
Posted by: Doug Zook | September 7, 2007 11:45 AM
clearly Zook is an Obama fan who is upset @ Bruce for bringing reality to the Swamp. I mean come on man. Warm feelings, I think we are really reaching here. Only a blind person can not see how the swamp picks and chooses certain obscure polls that show Obama in a favorable light. I do not agree w/ Bruce on evertyhing but I hope that he will keep up the good work.
Posted by: Vinny | September 7, 2007 3:42 PM
We'll try this again. I guess it was too mean for the pick-and-choose Tribune censors.
Why is it any surprise that most people have cold feelings to Hillary? After all, Hillary is icier than Old Man Winter and a wind chill that is below zero.
Posted by: John D | September 7, 2007 3:58 PM