So, there's been a lot of talk about how much Bill Clinton has supposedly hurt Hillary Clinton. Candidly, there is some polling to support this conclusion. According to a March 2008 Diageo/Hotline Poll, 51% of Democratic Primary Voters viewed Bill Clinton unfavorably. These results were also replicated in an April ABCNews-WashPost poll.
Still, there's an untold tale about Bill Clinton's effect on this primary campaign.
Taking a look at TPM Election Central's calendar for April, where the TPM gang tracks the comings and goings of all candidates, there are some very interesting results.
According to TPM, assuming their calendar is relatively accurate (I suspect they're under-counting activity on all sides), Bill Clinton has done almost twice as many events in April as has Hillary Clinton -- 53 events for Bill and 29 for Hillary. Barack Obama, by comparison has only done 27 events in April.
In March, Bill Clinton did 28 events while Hillary Clinton held 29, and Barack Obama did 20.
Chris Cillizza of Washington Post's The Fix estimates that Bill Clinton did over 80 events in Ohio and Texas combined.
It's not a stretch to say that Bill Clinton is campaigning harder than either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama right now.
Public Policy Polling of North Carolina believes that the Clinton Campaign's energetic use of Bill Clinton in North Carolina is "smart." Further, a late February 2008 Gallup Poll indicated that an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that Bill Clinton would be an asset to a Hillary Clinton administration.
In other words, while Bill Clinton may still troublesome as a media presence, he's become a quite powerful weapon for the Clinton Campaign to deploy at the grassroots and retail level.
|
|
|
Permalink :: 2 Comments :: Post a Comment
|
In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.
If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.
