The Daily Background
| Newsweek: Obama would beat McCain- WTF?
by Arlen Parsa
Newsweek has a hilarious and Not To Be Entirely Trusted 2008 poll out. Why do I say “Not To Be Entirely Trusted”? Well, for one it suggests that more Americans would vote for Obama for President than would vote for McCain (WTF?). Naturally, McCain is sagging a bit because of his deeply unpopular Iraq stance, and naturally Obama has high unknowns and therefore low unfavorables, but there’s still no way that Obama could beat McCain if the election was held tomorrow… Or is there?
I dunno, and it’s got me thinking. There’s no way. Also according to the poll, Edwards beats McCain, Clinton beats McCain, Edwards beats Giuliani, and Giuliani beats Clinton and Obama. Wtf. I guess then according to this poll, Edwards would be the mean to beat in the general election. Again, that’s why I say this is Not To Be Entirely Trusted (although I’ve nothing against Edwards and like him quite a bit).
Also from the poll, a generic Democrat bests a generic Republican 49%-28%. The poll found that the current President has a 31% approval rating, stuck at the lowest Newsweek/Princeton has ever registered him at (only 35% said the Commander-in-Chief “cares about people like themself” and 24% approve of his handling of Iraq). Meanwhile, a wide plurality believe Congressional Dems are keeping the promises they made on the campaign trail.
32% of Americans want the President to be “the decider” on Iraq, whereas 55% want “Democratic leaders in Congress” to take the lead. 64% think Iraq has made America less safe, and 67% think we’re losing ground over there. More numbers here.
Just to give you a comparison, the Newsweek poll found that 23% of Americans support the President’s escalation plan. Meanwhile WSJ/NBC asked respondents a similar question to their latest poll released around the same time: and found that “65% of Americans say the president shouldn’t move ahead with his plan. (Some 30% say go ahead.)” A 7 point difference. The President will have another opportunity to try and sell his Iraq plan during the State of the Union speech, which, though traditionally more centered around domestic matters, is expected to include discussion of Iraq.
