http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2007/02/1996_exit_poll_.html On Nov. 5, 1996, Voter News Service — the organization hired by the TV networks to do exit polling — asked people at the polls, who had just given Bill Clinton 49 percent of the vote, Bob Dole 41 percent and Ross Perot 8 percent, how they would have voted if the Republican candidate had been Gen. Colin L. Powell. In an exit poll sample of 3,697 (three times the size of a standard high-grade public opinion survey), the result was this: Powell: 50 percent. Clinton: 38 percent. Perot: 9 percent.
I find that less than entirely convincing. Powell didn't do what was necessary to have his name on that ballot. If he had, the people may have had a different impression of him on election day. His opponents would have spent the previous months attacking him, and some of those attacks might have stuck. You know what they say about wrestling with a pig. barfo
That is the exit poll. They asked the actual voters. Powell was ahead in the polls from the start of the campaign. Unlike Obama, he chose not to run as the first black man for president. I don't know how you attack a U.S. General and war hero. Just makes your side look even worse than it already does.
Again, it's easy (easier) to be ahead in the polls if you aren't running. Same is true for Redd Foxx. What's your point? I'm pretty sure Trump could tell you how it's done. barfo
Again, he was ahead in the polls the whole year. You do realize Clinton never got 50% of the vote, right? Either election.
You've made it clear you think Powell could have been elected, had he run. I'm not sure why you even think that's interesting today, but whatever. I agree with you that polls in 1996 showed Powell to be very popular, but I disagree that that means that he automatically would have won had he run. Yes, I realize that. What exactly is your point, that history repeats, and Clinton will be elected with less than 50% of the vote in 2016 and 2020? In that case we agree. barfo
it is interesting because republicans would have elected a black man. Kind of refutes crandc's argument. It is interesting that republicans would elect a black WOMAN, too. I understand it's way over your head.
Conversely, I'm pretty sure the DNC, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and the Hillary campaign have proven that the American people don't elect Democrats.
Correct, of course. Unless no one has a majority of the electors, in which case the House of Reps. elects the president... or in case Florida is a tie, in which case the supreme court choses. barfo
Republican presidents don't get elected without republican votes. Odd that you're so funny when you're trying to be serious and not so much when you're trying to be funny.
