Zogby: Dean now tied for 1st place with Gephardt & Lieberman

[JaneQPublic]

http://zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=724

Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt, former Vermont Governor Dr. Howard Dean, and Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman each polled 12% of the 504 likely voters surveyed July 16-17.

(I)n March, Lieberman lead the pack with 18%, followed by Gephardt at 11% and Kerry at 9%. Kerry maintained his 9% in the new poll, slipping from 3rd to 4th. Dean jumps in the new poll from a 4th place tie to a 1st place tie.

---snip

Two thirds (66%) think the Democratic Party should nominate a candidate who stands up for his or her beliefs, while 30% prefer a candidate who can defeat the President.

More than half (52%) of respondents say they do not favor a candidate who supports marriage for gay couples, while 35% say they would vote for a candidate who does support the concept. A plurality (42%) says they would back a candidate who supported the war in Iraq, while 37% feel their candidate should be someone who opposed the war. Just over one-in-five (21%) are not sure.

MORE...

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

1. Go Gephardt!

Gephardt can beat Lieberman, and could beat Bush easily, especially with a VP like Clark.

Imagine, an international living wage, a job program in the US that puts people back to work, and strong support for the working middle class. Not to mention that Gephardt is socially liberal.

Plus, Gephardt has said the first thing he would do about Iraq is get the UN involved (they should have been from the beginning) and reject Bush's multilateral approach.

[LuminousX]

2. I'm Curious

as to why Clark is considered this super-fantastic candidate that can turn a cloudy day into sunshine?

Let him declare a party and a candidacy and then I'll consider him. Until then, he is just another Colin Powell.

[quinnox]

6. Disregard n/t

n/t

[Cha]

13. I understand what you are saying!!

[Dr_Strangelove]

4. Howard Dean

Howard Dean has also said that the UN needs to get involved, so we can solve this bad situation as soon as possible. In the primaries, I'm going to back Dean, but WHOEVER wins the democratic nomination gets my vote.

[HFishbine]

3. The trend is your friend

Look at the trends:

Lieberman down 6 points.
Dean up 8 points.

No other significant movement.

[BlackRhino]

5. This is bullcrap.

Kerry is the only one of those who can win. I don't know ANYBODY who likes Leiberman.

[quinnox]

7. Yea

I like Kerry's chances.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

8. Gephardt is the only one that can win

Gephardt is electable, he speaks well and looks good on television. Dean and Kerry just aren't electable. I don't think Lieberman can win the primary.

[Ripley]

10. Hasn't he been absent for like 50% of the votes?

Didn't he recently miss the Head Start vote, that went down by one vote? He doesn't seem to participate much at work.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

12. Gephardt has a very good, very long record

Of voting for the working middle class. He can be elected easily.

[Ripley]

15. I didn't say he doesn't vote for the middle class.

I said he has missed so many, that I feel he is negligent in his duties. Not being there to vote is just handing the republicans a vote.

[ShimokitaJer]

18. actually his absenteeism is much higher

"Gephardt, who led the House Democrats before relinquishing his leadership post to run for president, has missed more than 350 votes this year, roughly 90 percent of those taken in the House, according to a Republican count.

The only other House member seeking the presidency, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, has not missed any votes. Four senators also are running for president, and all have skipped votes for campaign events, but none to the degree of Gephardt. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has not been present for roughly half the votes in the Senate, giving him the second-highest missed-vote record among the presidential contenders, according to the Republican count. "

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/07/25/national1630EDT0719.DTL


Who Counts the Votes will tell you it's because he's a strategic voter, who only votes when it's going to make a difference, but some of us care when a Rep doesn't show up for some of the votes that are most important to us... whether he thinks his presence matters or not.

[wuushew]

17. Gephardt ran in 1988 and did not get far

also he was a former chair of the DLC

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. Hadassah

[robcon]

11. I like Lieberman.

So now you "know" someone who likes Lieberman.

[w13rd0]

14. I "like" Lieberman...

...as a person. But not as a candidate. He's a friendly enough fellow, and a good tipper, but I disagree with his politics and his approach.

[ShimokitaJer]

16. I support Dean, so it's nice to hear, but...

It's hard to get excited about a poll of 504 people. In fact, it's getting harder to get excited about any of these polls. There are so many commissioned on a daily basis by so many organizations with so many agendas who all phrase their questions in so many ways that it's impossible to compare their results.

What the hell kind of question is it to ask if someone would rather have a candidate "who stands up for his or her beliefs" or one who "can defeat the President." These are mutually exclusive categories?

Here are the facts. It's less than a year until the election, but only just barely. None of the candidates have dropped out yet and some who might run haven't yet thrown their hats into the ring. We've finally stopped hearing the myth that Bush is unbeatable, but we still have to hear about every Democratic candidate in terms of their efforts to dispell that myth. NO CANDIDATE is the "only candidate who can beat Bush" or the "only candidate who can appeal to moderate voters." Talk about policy differences all you like, but this horse race crap is premature.