New to NY state, had a Clinton/Obama discussion last night

[dmallind]

I just moved to the Buffalo area last week. My main hobby happens to be satellite trivia so I'm playing away at the local bar and a couple on the stools next to me grab a box and sign in as "Obama". They seem pretty new to the game so I help them out with how the questions and clues work, and we start chatting. They are keen on Obama of course, and I ask them why they chose him - not nastily at all as I like the guy a bunch myself. I explain I like Richardson, but know he's effectively out of the running and wonder why they picked Obama over their home state Senator, who I also like a bunch too (for me Obama and Clinton are pretty much equal).

The answer surprises me a little, especially in HRC's home state. They say they like Hillary, have no problem with her politics or representation, but think it's time for someone else. Again not nastily, I remind them she IS someone else, having held only the same job as Obama's, albeit for a bit longer. I knew the conflation with Bill is something that both Hillary's fans and detractors use, but I thought it was for politcal junkies on both sides. Turns out that these folks, fairly smart and all that but not political mavens (they have never seen either in person, aren't involved in the party etc, just your average loyal Dem voters) do the same thing. Now they had plenty of good things to say about Bill Clinton, so no fatigue or worries about dynasties or other silliness, and they had no distrust at all of Hillary and said they'd be perfectly happy with her as pres if she's nominated, so no Hillary-hating either, and yet they took Bill's tenure to be Hillary's almost. I wonder if that quip about two for one was really taken very seriously, and this is an indication that a chunk of the voters see the Clintons as a unit rather than as separate people. Again, both fans and haters have done the same, but I didn't know the idea had really penetrated the less involved.

IF - and I know the weakness of limited anecdotal data so it's a big IF - these folks are representative of a large number of politically aware but not dedicated people, then to me it says two things - Obama could be helped by turnout drives for the primary, and Hillary's "negatives" may not be too much of a burden in the general, since these folks who are fans enough of Obama to use his name as an avatar of their own knowledge, had absolutely no worries voting for her if she gets the nod.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. That parallels my experience. And here's what worries me about that.

Most people don't dislike Hillary, as you say. But they aren't too keen a Clinton presidency redux. That means most of the popular support (meaning not party insider) for her is very soft. Which would be fine except for the vocal minority of mouth frothers who haaaaaaate Clinton. They are going to be making a lot of noise this upcoming year, with the aid of the RW media who is salivating over Clinton being the nominee. I fear that a lot of the people who'd be okay with Clinton would also be okay with Rudy if he were the nominee.

[shadowknows69]

2. a LOT of people weren't even happy with her running for Senator here

I'm really still astounded that she won.