Many political campaigns run against the wrong candidate. The opportunity to pick on a vulnerable target is so tempting that they are lured into attacking someone who isn’t running. In 1992, the Republicans unleashed their convention barrage at Hillary and left Bill unscathed.
The focus at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night is on nominee Barack Obama’s historic acceptance speech, but a man who takes the stage earlier in the evening was in Obama’s place eight years ago and remains one of the party’s most popular members.
American voters are more optimistic about the nation’s future than they have been in over four years. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 45% of voters think America’s best days lie ahead, while 37% think they have come and gone.
Who is Barack Obama? What have voters been telling Rasmussen Reports about the man who has energized his fellow Democrats and tonight officially becomes the first African-American presidential candidate of a major U.S. political party?
As the Democrats convene in Denver to celebrate Hillary Clinton and nominate Barack Obama, a tiny minority of her supporters continues to behave petulantly. They whine, they bluster, they agitate themselves and each other.
In some ways, the Dems confab sounds a bit like a Republican convention. For example: Nuclear energy? It's big here. The daily convention edition of the National Journal has been running pro-nuclear energy ads on Page Two every day -- and touting the support of Democratic Party biggies.
Three out of four Democrats (74%) say the party’s ongoing national convention has unified them as they roll out now in full force to put their nominee, Barack Obama, in the White House. Just 14% think the convention has not unified them.
Hillary Clinton just gave the last major speech of her 2008 campaign. Or perhaps was it the first of her 2012 campaign. She said vote-for-Barack enough times and at enough volume to protect her from accusations of trying to sabotage Obama's chances in November, not that she won't be accused.
There's no Obama-Biden bounce, according to the latest tracking polls. In fact, as of Wednesday morning, Scott Rasmussen reports a 47-46 one-point lead for John McCain. Gallup has the race even and indicates that conservative Democrats -- including married women -- are peeling away from Obama-Biden.
Her words were emphatic: "Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our next president." Hillary Clinton's endorsement was unambiguous and she held nothing back.
The majority party may be celebrating in Denver this week, but the percentage of voters who give the Democratic-dominated Congress good or excellent ratings has once again fallen to single digits.
National security is the issue of the day at the Democratic National Convention, but it wasn’t supposed to be this way. Democrats were planning on riding opposition to the highly unpopular war in Iraq right into the White House.
Bill Clinton is expected to talk about himself at the Democratic National Convention tonight and then leave town before Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. But just over half of Democrats believe there is no animosity between the two men and that the former president wants Obama to win.
All last week there were rumors that he would not make it to Denver at all. Then on Monday there were rumors that he was in a Denver hospital receiving oxygen, and that at best he would be in a box at Pepsi Center, watching the tribute and waving to the crowd. He'll never make it to the podium, more than one person told me.
DENVER -- There are two Democratic National Conventions here in Denver. The first one is the official convention, which has a sole purpose: to sell Barack Obama, not as a different kind of Democrat, but as a red-white-and blue everyman. Mr. Middle America.
Voter confidence in the War on Terror is at the highest level ever recorded since Rasmussen Reports began regular tracking in January 2004. Fifty-four percent (54%) of American voters now think the United States and its allies are winning the war.
Monday morning, before the Democratic National Committee launched its convention at Denver's Pepsi Center, the documentary "I.O.U.S.A." -- think: "one nation, under stress, in debt" -- played to a small but committed audience at the nearby Starz Film Center.
The focus Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention is on economic issues, but voters are evenly divided on which course is best in the current economic climate -- controlling inflation or promoting growth.
Just over half of Americans (52%) believe the legal drinking age should stay at 21. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 31% think it should be lowered to 18.
Nearly half of Democratic women (47%) say Barack Obama should have chosen Hillary Clinton for his running mate instead of Senator Joseph Biden as the former First Lady prepares to speak tonight at the Democratic National Convention. Thirty-nine percent (39%) disagree.
