Posted on 06/10/2007 12:01:53 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton continues to dominate her rivals in the early Southern Democratic primary states, but her high negatives and polarizing image likely will keep the South in the Republican column in 2008, according to strategists and analysts in the region.
Still, analysts who track political trends in the Sunbelt states say Republicans have been hurt by the party's divisive battle over immigration, especially in the South. That could help Democrats next year in Southern states such as Florida and Arkansas if Republicans are not unified behind their party's presidential nominee, they say.
"I don't think Hillary Clinton would run very well among white voters. But if the Republicans not united around their nominee, that would give someone like Hillary an opportunity," said Merle Black, a political historian and analyst at Emory University in Georgia.
"I think there has been a lot of disaffection among Republicans in the South for President Bush, especially as a result of the immigration debate, but I don't think that creates more Democrats in the South. If the Republicans are able to nominate someone who puts a different face on the party, then the Republicans will be back in the ballgame," Mr. Black said.
Recent polls show Mrs. Clinton, the front-runner for her party's nomination, lengthening her lead among Democrats in party preference polls in Florida. But she trails former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, the Republican front-runner, by five points in a head-to-head matchup, according to a Quinnipiac University poll last week.
Former President Bill Clinton, the last Democratic candidate to make electoral inroads in the South, "will campaign for her and that will play itself out, but she is a very different candidate than Bill Clinton, and she will resonate very differently in the South,"
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
This owes more to the ineptness of the DemocRATS than anything that Republicans are doing right.
HIllary is a really in your face democratic choice for president.
hmm what candidate could the pubbies put up that would be as equally in your face to the dems.
“I think there has been a lot of disaffection among Republicans in the South for President Bush, especially as a result of the immigration debate, but I don’t think that creates more Democrats in the South. If the Republicans are able to nominate someone who puts a different face on the party, then the Republicans will be back in the ballgame,” Mr. Black said.”
As Newt said, in order for a republican to win in 2008, he must run against George Bush. Fortunately, Mr. Bush has been taking up positions that will allow a conservative to do just that. The opportunity is there.
Only John Edwards would have a shot at the South.
This writer must be smoking some powerful weed if he thinks Mrs. Sissyboy has a chance to take Arkansas.
You know, there are several folks here who suggested (I'm not one of them) that this immigration insanity from Bush is an masterly plot by Bush/Rove to give Republican candidates a chance to have an issue to run against him. I however think this is unintentional...
Yep. It just makes people not care and not vote.
“Only John Edwards would have a shot at the South”
He’s seen as a sissy and a phony who couldn’t even win his own state.
He has a shot, just not a good one.
The RATS will lose because they are inherently anti-American and lack any fresh ideas. They will not be able to pursue the anti-terror war, will raise taxes and bring us down the road to socialism. Our main problem is the MSM who continue to brain-wash so many American minds.
If Hillary CLINTON (let’s not forget to call her by her last name, since she’s dropping it for political expediency) is the DumbocRAT nominee, mark my words...SHE WILL NOT WIN THE STATE OF ARKANSAS. We in Arkansas have the unfortunate pleasure of knowing her a little better than everyone else, including her New York constituents whom she knows nothing about except they are dumb enough to elect her.
I truly hope that no matter how middle of the road the conservative candidate of the Republican Party is, conservatives will unite to defeat her (or Obama for that matter). Then we can fight amongst ourselves to push for more and more conservative policies.
Bush isn’t setting himself up as a fall guy for the GOP, no matter what his apologists claim. Whoever started that rumor is looking for a way out of the fact that the man is a classic globalist and big-government fan, and the only connection he has with conservatism is that he suckered most of the folks who believe in it.
“”will campaign for her and that will play itself out, but she is a very different candidate than Bill Clinton, and she will resonate very differently in the South,””
talk about a round-about way of calling it like it is.
Boy, did he ever get that right!
And it's unlikely he could carry his home state, is it not?
Ping to my previous post...
This is totally to be expected. Under very few circumstances would the southerners be prepared to vote for candidates like Hillary or Obama. One need only look at the South in 2006 to see this, too. There were very few instances indeed where southerners turned their back on the GOP in a wide-scale way. There were some exceptions like George Allen in Virginia, but the GOP also held onto some very competitive Senate seats like Tennessee and the GOP did remarkably well in the Florida gubernatorial contest.
The GOP is still very much in the driver’s seat in the South.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.