Posted on 02/21/2005 8:32:45 PM PST by Libloather
Clinton's Popularity Up in State, Even Among Republicans
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Published: February 22, 2005
Remember Hillary Rodham Clinton and the conventional wisdom about how polarizing a figure she is? Well, think again.
Recent polls have shown that Mrs. Clinton, the junior senator from New York, may have turned a corner politically, sharply reducing the number of voters in the state who harbor negative views of her.
Pollsters say the change is remarkable for a woman who has long been shadowed by a seemingly implacable group of voters - commonly referred to as Hillary haters - who dislike her, no matter what she does, and who pose a potential obstacle to any presidential ambitions she may harbor.
A measure of how far Senator Clinton has come was on display Sunday when Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, said on "Meet the Press" that he thought Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat, would make a good president, although he said that he would support his party's nominee. She returned the compliment, saying when asked by the program's host, Tim Russert, that Senator McCain would be a good president.
The changing view of Mrs. Clinton coincides with a period following the November election in which she offered a series of speeches filled with references to faith and prayer, while putting less emphasis on polarizing social issues like gay marriage and abortion.
The result of these comments has been an emerging image of Senator Clinton that is far different from the caricature that Republicans have painted of her: that of a secular liberal whose stances are largely at odds with a public that they say is concerned about the nation's moral direction.
Political analysts say the themes Senator Clinton has emphasized - combined with the hard-working image she has sought to project - appear to be causing large numbers of voters to re-evaluate her in New York, although not nationally, where the number of people who disapprove of her is still high. In a Marist poll last fall, roughly 4 in 10 Americans had negative views of her.
Her progress appealing to once skeptical New Yorkers was illuminated by a New York Times poll released last week that showed that 21 percent of New Yorkers had an unfavorable opinion of how she is handling her job, down significantly from the 29 percent of voters who expressed similar sentiments in October 2002.
(In two recent back-to-back surveys, pollsters for Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Conn., also found a notable decline in the number of New York voters who expressed a negative view of Mrs. Clinton.)
At the same time, Senator Clinton's job approval rating has increased to 69 percent from 58 percent in October 2002, according to the Times poll. That is higher even than the 63 percent approval rating of Charles E. Schumer, the senior senator from New York who was re-elected last year to a second term with a record 71 percent of the vote and who is known for his attention to upstate concerns.
The new attitudes toward Mrs. Clinton may be forcing Republicans to reconsider how to deal with an opponent they had until now viewed as an enticing target because of the depth of negative feelings she inspires among large numbers of New York voters.
Independent political analysts say her strong standing may give pause to any big-name Republican thinking about challenging her in 2006, chief among them Rudolph W. Giuliani and Gov. George E. Pataki. In fact, a Quinnipiac poll released earlier this month found that Mrs. Clinton would defeat both Mr. Pataki and Mr. Giuliani in head-to-head contests.
"There isn't a long line of opponents forming to take her on in 2006," said Lee M. Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
But New York Republican leaders say that they are eager to challenge Senator Clinton, especially since Republicans from around the country will almost certainly provide plenty of money and other campaign support to defeat her, as they did in 2000.
New York Republicans also say that the senator has had a free ride so far and that her opponent in the campaign will have an easy time driving up her negative ratings - and halting her rise in the polls - by pointing out what they describe as her poor record of accomplishment and her liberal ideology.
Think back to John (the French Looking One) Kerry back in March,2004. He had a free ride from the liberal media(a redundantcy), he had a low negative number, high positives, and then the Bush team went to work to define him, and the whole picture changed.
Analyzing and polling H. R.Clinton's chances for 2008 right now is so premature and futile, it makes as much sense as analyzing the election in Iran, which will probably take place before then.
Vince Foster's mistress could have a 0 negative rating and it wouldn't matter, until her opponents begin to define her
as the power-hungry political beast she really is.
I'll tell ya'll what made me sick tonight---
I made the mistake of watching Joe Scarborough---at the very end of his show, he showed exerpts of Hillary's interview on MTP yesterday morning---after that, they had a picture of her in the upper right corner of the screen with the words "Hillary Watch" above her head and a "clock" with 1,300 and something days until 2008 on it, and Joe said that everyday they would let US know what Hillary is doing in her quest for the White HOuse---
Now, I thought the MSM went WAY overboard in propping up Kerry, but this is ridiculous---every single night they are gonna give Hillary FREE tv time to her campaign---she hasn't even officially declared herself a candidate for Senator yet, let alone President!!!
Of course the rest of Joe's show before the big unveiling of the Hillary Watch cam was about the Bush tapes and whether Bush set this up with Doug Wead---blech------
You might say that about McCain as well.
Let the NY Times dress this pig up for the slaughter.
New York Republicans that voted for Bloomberg? LOL
Oh, I know there are SOME real Republicans in N.Y. but most would be considered Liberals in any other state.
Nice try N.Y.T.'s but McCain and N.Y. Republicans are not a good litmus test and you know it.
Horse patootie is cheaper by the railcar, yaknow.
NYT sure loaded up this one, tho.
Just get used to it. Hillary has learned to be an effective and supple politician. She's come a long way baby.
Thats not the way I saw it. We had a war-time President up against Kerry's incompetent campaign and we won by a mere 120k in Ohio. If not for the Swifties and Rathergate...
NEW YORK
I'm sure folks in liberal places like New York (who elected two liberal Senators) and California would like her.
But keep in mind, even in those states, there are a ton of folks that hate her.
Which means out in the Nation, where liberals are less and even some Dems tend to get it.........they won't have a high view of her.
FCOL ping.
She's going to get trounced. She has evil written all over her face. Donate big !
"Every single night they are gonna give Hillary FREE tv time to her campaign---she hasn't even officially declared herself a candidate for Senator yet, let alone President"
That's how she is getting these high approval numbers. You should see the incredibly positive coverage the local NY media (NY Post is the exception) gives her. According to them, she's fighting for veterans, fighting for anti-terrorism funding, finding "common ground" on abortion, fighting quality-of-life problems related to immigration.
Mark my words.. the NY GOP can barely hold it together for the governor's race, and they have little prospect of fielding any serious challenger for her Senate seat. She has a clear shot at the Democratic nomination in 2008.
And Hillary knows how to count. She sees loony left field is crowded (with anti-Patriot-Act Sen. Feingold, anti-military Dean, a confused John Kerry, and perhaps vote conspiracy Barbara Boxer), so she's gonna play right field. And that will only benefit her in the general election.
I agree with other posters.. don't underestimate this woman.
The Republicans in New York are the ones that helped elect Bloomberg as mayor---he is NOT a Republican!!!
Hillary's bid may not work, but it has been in the works a long time, and her positioning is being crafted and re-crafted virtually every day. It is illusion, of course, that is being created by the NYT---if the writer is persuasive enough, who has the wherewithal to marshal enough facts to refute him? So we are left with a self-fulfulling prophesy, MAYBE. The claim that she has Republican support is something I have no trouble believing .Most of them are RINOs and they'd be willing to give someone like Hillary a wide berth as she goes about proving to the voting public that she's a DINO. Whoever is best as the game as far as they're concerned is the one who deserves to win.
Hillary's bid may not work, but it has been in the works a long time, and her positioning is being crafted and re-crafted virtually every day. It is illusion, of course, that is being created by the NYT---if the writer is persuasive enough, who has the wherewithal to marshal enough facts to refute him? So we are left with a self-fulfulling prophesy, MAYBE. The claim that she has Republican support is something I have no trouble believing .Most of them are RINOs and they'd be willing to give someone like Hillary a wide berth as she goes about proving to the voting public that she's a DINO. Whoever is best as the game as far as they're concerned is the one who deserves to win.
This goes to show that Long Island and Up-state NY are full of RINOs, who think its 'cool' to have a celebrity as their Senator.
This is just a taste of things to come from the media. Just wait; the terms "moderate" and "centrist" will be applied by the mainstream media to Hillary more times in the next 4 yrs than it has been to all other people who ever lived, combined!
By the time they are through, Webster will have added "Hillary Clinton" as one of its definitions for a moderate or centrist.
A measure of how far Senator Clinton has come was on display Sunday when Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, said on "Meet the Press" that he thought Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat, would make a good president
John McCain, now that's a real testimony to the heartbeat of the Republican party. He doesn't even rate RINO status.
I can see it now, Clinton/McCain 08.
...or we will be banging our heads against the Clinton Machine for another 8 years.
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