Poll: Bush way ahead in Florida | Lieberman leads Democrats

[goobergunch]

By Bill Cotterell
DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR

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The Mason-Dixon Florida Poll said Bush's overall approval rating has held steady - although his disapproval numbers have risen since last summer. But in head-to-head matchups with his major Democratic challengers, Bush led by 20 points or more.

The first Mason-Dixon poll taken since Sen. Bob Graham dropped out of the presidential contest also showed a close race in the nine-Democrat field. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., had 21-percent support - drawing heavily on name identification from his 2000 vice-presidential campaign and popularity in urban areas of Southeast Florida - but former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean was gaining on him at 17 percent.

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The survey on issues and the president's popularity was conducted last week among 625 registered voters, with a margin of error of 4 percent. Mason-Dixon also ran an "over-sampling" of 379 registered Democrats, to test the strength of Bush's challengers, and that sampling had a 5-percent error margin. The polling was sponsored by the Tallahassee Democrat and several other newspapers and broadcasters in the state.

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Coker said it was significant that Bush's favorable name recognition stood at 53 percent, compared with 30 percent unfavorable. That's a 4-percent increase since July in the number of voters with an unfavorable view of the incumbent, but much better than the favorable-unfavorable ratios of Dean (21-22 percent), Lieberman (32-27 percent) and retired Gen. Wesley Clark (24-18 percent).

more...http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/local/7343228.htm

Florida's primary is March 9, so it probably won't be a factor. However, it is an important state for the general election. It's still early, but this isn't a good sign.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. What's the info on Bill Cotterell?

If he's a right-winger, there's no point listening. If there is a twenty point spread in Florida, then cut bait or come up with a new way to energize the base.