Who has a better chance of beating the Repukes in November?

[ButterflyBlood]

Poll question: Who has a better chance of beating the Repukes in November?

Simple and binary.

I vote for the guy who doesn't have a net 8 unfavorability rating.

[goldcanyonaz]

1. Senator Clinton looks amazing in the picture. Wow!

[ClassWarrior]

2. Edwards.

NGU.

[AshevilleGuy]

3. Edwards could beat any of them.

He has been vetted in 2004, they never laid a smear on him.

Hillary could beat all but McCain, I think.

Obama would lose to any of them. The smear machine would destroy him.

[mathewsleep]

4. they didn't

smear edwards because they didn't have to. kerry was an easy enough target. edwards was never a threat to them, why waste the energy.

[JeffR]

10. Bzzzzzzzzt. Uh-uh.

All oppo research in modern presidential politics involves the veep candidate too. Knocking the guy riding shotgun generally doesn't work, but don't think for a second that it isn't SOP, against the possibility that something juicy will turn up. And if they'd had something of any weight on him, damn right they would have used it. They didn't, and they didn't.

[mathewsleep]

12. the gop knew

that people liked edwards; his favorability ratings were higher then kerry's. it would only make them look bad to attack someone people actually liked. so they attacked kerry, a figure who was almost as divisive as hillary is today.

[JeffR]

14. Oppo research exists to make likable unlikable.

And there was nothing particularly divisive about Kerry, they just drew him that way. That's what it's about. That's how it's done.

[mathewsleep]

16. nothing divisive about kerry?

do you have no memory. his strong opposition to the vietnam was insanely divisive. it was right, but never the less divisive.

[JeffR]

17. Not buying that for a nanosecond.

It was a fiction. Long before that war ended, the majority of Americans hated it and wanted out. Just the way they want out of Iraq now. The magic formula is to distort these things, say that down is up, and keep saying it. Over and over. And it works, or they wouldn't spend obscene portions of their campaign budgets on this.

[mathewsleep]

18. there was tape

of kerry testifying against the war. there is proof that he was a strong protester. again, he was right to do so. but that doesn't change the fact that it was a divisive issue.

[JeffR]

19. Kerry was instrumental in a national sea-change

Decorated war hero returns stateside, testifies before Congress about the immorality of the war. That was settled national wisdom until the memory of it was dredged up, reinterpreted upside down, fed to the corporate media, and repeated until its echo was all that was heard throughout the land. Again, that's how it's done.

[mathewsleep]

20. i'm not saying

what he did was wrong, but he pissed off a lot of vets. from every war. fuck them for being pissed, but still they were. and there was a lot of them.

[JeffR]

21. Kerry was not a pariah among vets, other than a small number

of paid shills among them. For decades. Until the machine got warmed up. Again I'll say: that's how it's done.

And they didn't lay off Edwards because they didn't need to bother. They just didn't find something they could get away with slandering him on.

[mathewsleep]

22. well

i disagree. let this be a civil end to it. they'll find something on anyone. or they'll just make it up. edwards would be no exception. i think he is clean, but it won't matter.

[JeffR]

23. We're agreed on the last point.

They'll do what they do. How the Dems will handle it is the burning issue.

[AshevilleGuy]

13. As close as it was, they would have taken no chances

But they obviuosly had nothing on Edwards, and they have nothing on him now. But yet here we go nominating someone who has not been vetted, believing that any Dem can win this time. This is not the case - it never is.

[wiley]

24. I have to agree that Edwards has been shut out of the media

manipulation of this campaign quite effectively.

[ClassWarrior]

7. You're right on your first point.

I'm thinking you sadly underestimate Obama - and overestimate Clinton - but that's getting into crystal ball territory, and I hate it when others do that.

NGU.

[Chasing Dreams]

5. Edwards or Obama win, but Obama takes it in a landslide. n/t

[texas_indy]

11. Obama will take it with a landslide.

Looking forward to seeing him when he visits us in Texas...and it will be very nice to finally vote FOR someone!

Last time I felt this way was with Ann Richards.

[frazzled]

6. The person who wins the Democratic nomination.

Period.

[jlake]

8. Obama collapses and loses my serious double digits. Hillary wins with 51%.

[Fearless]

9. Oh honey, I beat them year round!

Seriously though, Obama gets the independent vote, he wins by more. At least that's how it's going so far. We'll see.

[Triana]

15. EDWARDS (bytheway, do you work for the lamestream media?)

Your poll looks like one of theirs.