Poll finds female voters support Obama-Biden
http://www.valleynewstoday.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20107548&BRD=2703&PAG=461&dept_id=555139&rfi=6
Charlotte Eby, Special to the Valley News
09/05/2008
On the day when GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was set to take the spotlight at her party's national convention, a women's group was trying to blunt her appeal with female voters.
http://www.emilyslist.org/">EMILY's List, which works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, released a poll they said shows female voters like Palin less the more they know about her stances on issues such as abortion and stem cell research.
The group, which is backing Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential race, released results from a poll of 800 female voters conducted by the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group that gauged their views on Palin."When we describe various positions that Gov. Palin holds, she becomes less attractive to voters generally, and especially to the most important swing voters in the electorate," pollster Geoff Garin said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday.
The poll did not include questions about Palin's family situation after the revelation that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant.
Palin, who Republican John McCain's chose last week as his running mate, has described herself as pro-life and opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest.
The poll, conducted Sunday and Monday, found that respondents felt the Democratic ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden better understands the issues important to women, especially voters who had backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the primary.
In the poll, 52 percent of women voters supported Obama and Biden compared to 41 percent who supported McCain and Palin.Garin said the survey shows the pick of Palin, the first-term Alaska governor and a former mayor, also neutralizes McCain's advantage of experience in the race.
When respondents were asked which ticket has the best experience, background and knowledge, they picked the Obama-Biden ticket over McCain-Palin by a 52-37 percent margin, Garin said."By making a choice at the end of the day that was really designed to please the right-wing of his party, he (McCain) vacated the middle of the electorate in a very substantial way and a way that I believe will be damaging to his candidacy as we go along," Garin said of the choice of Palin.
EMILY's List Founder and President Ellen Malcom said McCain's choice of Palin as his running mate underestimates women voters.
"If Sen. McCain thought he was going to pick up the Hillary Clinton women voters, his strategy appears to be a tremendous backfire," Malcom said.
Garin said the poll sample was representative of women voters as a whole.
Of those polled, 42 percent described themselves as Democrats, 28 percent described themselves as Republicans, 7 percent as independent voters who lean Democratic, and 6 percent described themselves as independents who lean Republican.More...
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
