Hillary's surge in the polls is largely due to support from women with college degrees

[jefferson_dem]

Good for Hillary. This will be a key voting block come next November.

Educated Women Climb Aboard
By Ronald Brownstein, National Journal
Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007

An irony of Hillary Rodham Clinton's political career is that the women who resemble her most have often appeared to support her the least.

From her first New York Senate race in 2000 to her presidential campaign this year, Clinton has connected effectively with blue-collar and working-class women. "They think she is tough and smart and gets their lives," says veteran Democratic consultant Celinda Lake, who is polling for presidential hopeful Joseph Biden and has also conducted surveys about the race for liberal women's groups.

But college-educated and professional women -- who have more in common with Clinton -- have been a greater puzzle for her. Some view her as cold and calculating. Others think that she betrayed the ideals of feminism by remaining with her husband, former President Clinton, despite his publicly acknowledged infidelities.

"There has been a bigger hurdle to overcome with those women," admits Mark Penn, the chief strategist for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Or, as Lake puts it: "It's her peers who are tougher on her."

But recent polls show Clinton dramatically gaining ground with better-educated Democratic women, both nationally and in the key early state of New Hampshire. More than any other factor, those gains explain why she has nearly doubled her lead over Barack Obama, her closest competitor, in national Gallup polls since summer, according to an analysis by Gallup for National Journal. Clinton remains very popular among downscale Democratic women, the Gallup results show, and her newfound strength among college-educated Democratic women is allowing her to cut into the core of Obama's coalition: well-educated Democrats.

<SNIP>

http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/071025nj1.htm

[illinoisprogressive]

1. Actually her surge is media driven.

[OhioChick]

3. You're Absolutely Right. n/t

[wyldwolf]

4. then why isn't Obama surging? He gets tons of media coverage

:shrug:

[IndianaGreen]

13. I think is the other way around. The least educated, the more likely a woman is to support Hillary

Better still, the least knowledgeable a woman is, the more likely she is to fall for the celebrity of Hillary.

Like Bush, Hillary is the candidate of low-info voters.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. That Is The Most Condescending And Patronizing Thing I Have Ever Read On The "Internets"

It is demonstrably untrue, empirically and anecdotally...

[cali]

18. Shorter IG

I will simply make up my own "facts" to fit my viewpoint, and completely ignore evidence to the contrary.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. It's Worse

It's the conceit that if you disagree with me you're stupid...

[Alter Ego]

29. I'd rather she fall for Hillary's "celebrity"

than for that of Romney, McCain, Giuliani, or Fred "Cabbage Face" Thompson.

[cuke]

32. So you think women are shallow?

Not surprised

[DemocratSinceBirth]

34. Only The "Fair Ladies" (Sic) That Disagree With Her

DSB

[sampsonblk]

21. Actually, she's a great campaigner

Who knew?

She isn't a great speaker (yet), but as a campaigner, she's doing all the right things the right way at the right time.

I have no doubt that she could surge among other groups if she put her mind to it.

[ShortnFiery]

31. So the candidate who can most emulate PT Barnum's values should win?

[sampsonblk]

35. Not at all

I am just pointing out why I believe she's ahead. I am not making a value judgment. I'll leave that to others.

[LibDemAlways]

27. You've got that right. I'm a woman with

a college degree, and Hillary is my last choice, although the media has been painting her as inevitable for a long time. For now, I'm sticking with Edwards.If Hillary is the eventual nominee, I'll vote for her in the general, although it will be reluctantly and without enthusiasm.

[amandabeech]

41. I'm with you.

I have a bachelor's and a law degree, and my first choice is Edwards. Perhaps I gravitate toward him because my family started out poor, too, and I want people at the low end of the income spectrum respected and treated right. Edwards will do it much better than Clinton. Kucinich would also do it much better than Clinton.

I also think that Clinton will get us into more foolishness in the Middle East. She hasn't withdrawn her support of the Iraq war, like Edwards, and looks like she's not opposed to bombing Iran. Biden looks better than her on this issue, which is really important to me.

And then there's her support of Bill. I have thought that Bill was a troubled man since I saw "A Man from Hope." He grew up in a household with a violent, drunken step-father. I have dysfunctional individuals in my family, too, and I know how it can affect children later in life. It didn't look like Bill was even aware of the problem, but I thought that it would come out one way or another, and, IMHO, it did. There's a reason why he is in or has been in counseling for sexual addiction. I hope that Hillary is not a co-dependent enabler of an Adult Child of an Alcoholic (that '70s language) or someone who puts up with him because of her ultimate life goals because she's ahead in the polls.

Obviously, I don't know the Clintons, but I don't like the information that's out there, including some of the summaries that I've seen of Bernstein's book on Clinton's very "assertive" father, if true.

This is a much more dangerous time than the '90s, and I'm not willing to run the risk that a possibly dysfunctional couple will run things.

We have better candidates for the current situation.

[ShortnFiery]

30. Exactly! My opinion also ... or HRC doesn't enjoy support from those of us with advanced degrees?

:shrug: This makes no sense to me. I have not talked with ONE person, nor have I viewed ONE bumper sticker supporting HRC.

Media craze for higher ratings and never-ending scandals? CHECK! :evilgrin:

[AtomicKitten]

2. Obama has an untapped goldmine in young voters.

[NoPasaran]

23. The trouble with that untapped goldmine

Is it's really a vein of young non-voters who need to be motivated to actually show up at their primaries and caucuses if it's going to do him any good.

[Freddie Stubbs]

25. The problem is those young voters generally don't vote until the general election

They will likely go untapped.

[Bitwit1234]

5. Hillary's surge is because they like her better 'n Obama.

[NewHampster]

6. Got that right

[Tellurian]

24. So, what was it they said...

Obama is going to be busing kids in from ILL to the IOWA Cauaus?

[democratsin08]

7. makes sense

educated people are not impressed with the negative campaign of obama.

[bicentennial_baby]

8. We're also not impressed with Hillary...

:eyes:

[jefferson_dem]

9. LOL!

Negative. Whatever. :rofl:

[liberalhistorian]

11. Seems to me that Hillary's campaign is

a helluva lot more negative, and engages in more smears, than Obama's; not that I'm entirely thrilled with Obama right now, either. Just sayin.'

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. Who Did She Smear

Please proffer the evidence with names...

Innuendo and hearsay aren't evidence in America...

[liberalhistorian]

10. Well, this is one gal with a college

degree hanging on her wall who does NOT support Hillary, who will be sickened if she's the nominee, and who will hold her nose to vote for her if she IS the nominee. And I know I ain't alone in that, either.

[rinsd]

12. Excellent!

Thanks for posting jeff_dem :hi:

[cuke]

14. k&r

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[liberalhistorian]

28. Uhhhh.......look, I am definitely not a Hillary

supporter and I do not want her to be the nominee. But your statement is very childish and not constructive at all. And it is, unfortunately, beginning to look more and more like she will NOT be "crashing and burning." Far from it.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[depakid]

22. Brownstein- that guy has about as much credibility as Howard Feinman

or Howard Kurtz.

Amazing that the Times is allowing him to write on politics again after his last little scandal. I guess that says something about the Times/Tribune's credibility, too.

Note: The Times found out that his wife was working for the McCain Campaign.

[watercolors]

26. Yea for us!

nt

[ozone_man]

33. Good, send them to fight in Iran

when the war starts. Out of sight out of mind. It's easy to vote for a war like Hillary, harder if you have to fight in one.

[cuke]

36. So when will you be joining the Iranian Revolutionary Guard?

After all, the unjustly accused should be defended against the warmongering Hillary, right? Or are you just going to sit on the sidelines and whine?

[ozone_man]

37. I'll be voting for a peace candidate.

I imagine the founders that started the country did a bunch of whining. Look where it got them? Maybe it will take another revolution. :)

[cuke]

39. They actually fought in a revolution

They risked their lives, their family, their fortune...everything

[ozone_man]

40. It could come to that at some point.

As we drift further toward fascism, we may need to restore the republic by revolution.

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in Government."
-- Thomas Jefferson

[janx]

38. That's funny. I heard the same thing on MSNBC yesterday

from Nora O'Donnell and Tweety.

It's interesting how these pearls of wisdom make the media circuits, no?