Barack Obama has gained his strongest advantage over Hillary Clinton in Gallup's daily tracking poll, with a 'broadening' of support among Democratic constituencies.
by Mark Silva
Sen. Barack Obama has benefitted from "a surge'' of voter support in recent days, according to the Gallup Poll, which has pegged Obama's advantage over Sen. Hillary Clinton among Democrats at a "record'' 16 points.
The results of Gallup's daily tracking surveys from May 16-18 portrayed the biggest advantage for Obama, among Democrats surveyed, since an early April high-point of 11 percentage points.
With Obama poised to claim a majority of the party's pledged delegates in primaries today, and with Obama already claiming a majority of superdelegates, the last leg of Clinton's formula for claiming the nomination depended on the argument that most Democrats would support her. Awaiting the outcome of votes in Kentucky, which Clinton expects to win, and Oregon, which Obama expects to win, Obama has gained a significant national edge in Democratic-voter sentiment.
The "broadening'' of Obama's support among Democrats since he gained the perception of being the party's likely presidential nominee is "fairly widespread,'' Gallup reports. However, the movement is most striking among young men (18-29), people with postgraduate degrees and upper-income voters. Obama holds a two-to-one advantage over Clinton among these voters surveyed, Gallup's Lydia Saad reports.
At the same time, support for Clinton among her long-supporting constituency - women, white voters, adults without college degrees and Hispanices - has fallen below 50 percent in the latest Gallup tracking.
"Bottom line,'' Gallup's Saad reports, "After nearly 20 grueling weeks on the campaign trail since he shook up the Democratic primary race by winning the Iowa caucuses, Obama has finally stretched his lead over his chief rival into the teens. Having previously captured nearly the maximum level of support from black voters, Obama's latest gains have come from a broad spectrum of rank-and-file Democrats.
"At least for now, he has expanded his position as the preferred candidate of men, young adults, and highly educated Democrats, and has erased Clinton's advantages with most of her prior core constituency groups, including women, the less well-educated, and whites,'' she notes of the survey of 1,261 Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters interviewed May 16-18. The results carry a possible 3 percentage point margin of error.
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Comments
Another media swipe at Hillary. Forging demographics to support an otherwise unqualified candidate. Boy is he kissing the derriere of both the media and superdelegates. Personally I think ya'll don't want to answer to a woman. You feel inferior when you have to acknowledge a woman is superior to your cause. Poor Obama, do you actually think He'll run the country. Nope, Reverend Wright and Michelle Obama will run the country. TIme to move to Canada
Posted by: Walter | May 20, 2008 2:38 PM
This looks like an affirmation of Obama's shift to focusing on McCain and the fall election. Sad as the prospect of a Clinton loss is for her followers, there's also a widespread acknowledgement that Democrats need to be focusing on John McCain to ensure victory in the fall.
Posted by: Michael | May 20, 2008 2:55 PM
I think Mrs Obama should go on TV and say she apoligizes and mis-spoke. What she meant was she hasn't been proud to be an American for the last 7 1/2 years, and it seemed like all of her adult live.
Posted by: Fred D Bartleson Jr | May 20, 2008 2:55 PM
This is not about sexism. She lost fair and square. Lots of people didn't vote for Obama because of his race. I think it's pretty much even ground. Get over it please. We have an election in Nov. Thanks
Posted by: Mark | May 20, 2008 3:13 PM
Obviously this is going to happen, I mean, the media has said that she really has no way to victory. You would have to expect a trend in the polls to favor Obama after a dialogue like this. What's impressive is that she still may win states, like Kentucky and Puerto Rico. I mean, let's be frank, there is no way you get the coverage like Mrs. Clinton at this point and believe that her gallup ranking is going to increase, so this article is only meant to state the obvious.
Posted by: sarah | May 20, 2008 3:24 PM
barack obama 'broadening democratic base'? Lol I dont think so! He' s a divider not a uniter and I will never vote for that fraud if he steals the nomination from Hillary. Never!
Posted by: brigitte | May 20, 2008 3:33 PM
BROAD-ening. Thats Right! INSTEAD of having to fight for racist votes he simple went after a different demographic. Clinton and her crew are wrong and thats why they are losing. Its also why McCANE is going to lose. Barack doesnt need the "racist" vote.
Posted by: Keith Lifetime Southsider | May 20, 2008 4:11 PM
Walter - don't let the door hit ya
Posted by: Jethro | May 20, 2008 4:12 PM
barack obama 'broadening democratic base'? Lol I dont think so! He' s a divider not a uniter and I will never vote for that fraud if he steals the nomination from Hillary. Never!
Posted by: brigitte | May 20, 2008 3:33 PM
Steals? Hillary has NEVER had the nomination. It doesn't belong to her. The Clinton supporters sense of entitlement never ceases to amaze.
Posted by: Lois | May 20, 2008 4:27 PM
Gallup is owned by Time Mag Time /Warner who just called Obama the "winner".... please buy a clue, what else would they say?
The DNC can have Barry or theWhite House. Now which will it be? Since we are talking about The Dems, I still don't know the answer to that question
Posted by: Anne | May 20, 2008 4:28 PM
The grass roots movement for Obama is beginning to go nation wide.
I was lucky enough to have seen Senator Obama up close before he caught on with the rest of the country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtN3hsITCok
Obama in 08!
Posted by: Deward Bowles | May 20, 2008 4:39 PM
Brigitte,
Barack Obama is a uniter whether you want to believe it or not. Never in my 60 years have I seen such excitement about a candidate. Just because you do not share our excitement does not mean it does not exist.
All my adult life I thought I would vote for a woman as soon as one ran. For 20 years I have supported the Clintons. They are not the same politicians they once were. They are divisive and have used dirty tactics to try to beat Obama. In her frustration, and because she was so ill prepared because she thought she would just walk away with the nomination she did not organize her people very well.
This is a new generation that is supporting Barack Obama. He is a decent man who is a once in a life time leader. He will blow McBomb outta the water. So we are not worried about your pitiful sore loser vote. You cannot see the other side because you are so angry that HRC blew it. That is not our fault.
Posted by: pamelagoodenough | May 20, 2008 4:52 PM
What a bunch of wusses. Barack Obama has engineered and run the best political campaign ever and Hillary Clinton has tried to run on her "entitlement". Sen. Obama has run circles around her. Of the three, he is undoubtedly the most honest, intelligent, and articulate and when he has been able to sound out his thoughts on most subjects, his analysis and vision have been of superior quality. Bill Clinton was reputed to be a quick study of new material and brought in people of varying positions to listen to and bounce ideas off, often leading him to some truly wonderful conclusions and I think that that was one of the secrets of his success. But, we have got to stop the same o', same o' kind of political posturing that has gotten us into the horrible positions that we as a country are in now. Barack Obama is the candidate that has the greatest chance to change the Washington ethic and his superior ability at analysis and conclusions will once again make us the power house of ideas, production and success that made this the most envied country in the world since WWII--perhaps one of the greatest presidents ever!
Posted by: Cullen Athey | May 20, 2008 5:15 PM
He's broadening the party, but will they vote? Republicans expand their base by hatred for anyone different than themselves. Hatred will drive people to the polls to vote. Obama uses hope, not as confident that will get people to the polls. Sad but true.
Posted by: Paul | May 20, 2008 5:32 PM
Walter---you are so RIGHT!!! OMG! HE MUST BE USING THE BABY WIPES AND THE LAVORIS BIG TIME!
NEVER forget the Trib endorsed Bush over Gore, Bush over Kerry, kids.
And these polls--they just show Hillary that when the media wants to pull the plug, the polls go dead.
BUT THE VOTERS DON'T.
YOU CAN CUT OUR PHONE LINES ALL YOU WANT AND WE'LL STILL GO VOTE.
Posted by: We don't vote like 'da polls, 'member? | May 20, 2008 5:37 PM
HMMMMM--and what QUESTIONS and what PROBES did the great Time Warner (omg--Hillary will re-regulate me but barack rollover and BARK! won't) ASK.
Puh-leeze.
Posted by: Marge Inoverra | May 20, 2008 5:39 PM
Obama has mentioned several times that he can 'reach across the aisle', in essence to compromise with republicans. Can ANYONE show even ONE time that he has ever voted FOR a conservative issue? As far as I know, the answer is no - so by default he is a divider. A 'uniter' is someone who can compromise - and of all of these candidates McCain does match that description most (even though I still don't like him).
Posted by: chrispc88 | May 20, 2008 5:49 PM
When Obama is the nominee will it then be Ok for the media to say so? I get the feeling with some of the supporters that it will never be Ok.
Clinton has been running on the hopes of superdelegates for a long time now. They are not coming. How clear can it be?
While the party line is that superdelegtes were created to (fill in the blank). There has always been resistance to the concept of overturning the result of primaries and caucuses. It's probably why it has never happened.
I mean if it didn't happen with Dukakis give me a break on it happening with Obama.
Congrats Mr. Obama show some fight against McSame as you have done recently and its all yours.
Posted by: Toney T | May 20, 2008 6:08 PM
80% OF HILLARY SUPPORTERS WILL NEVER VOTE FOR BARACK HUSSIEN OBAMA IF HE STEALS THE NOMINATION FROM HER, THIS MEANS THAT MCCAIN WILL WIN THE ELECTION BY A HUGE LANDSLIDE AND THIS IS A FACT!
Posted by: brigitte | May 20, 2008 6:16 PM