NEW POLL: Dean Widens Lead Over Rivals; Less Than Half of Voters Paying Attention to 2004 Election
By Jimmy Moore
Talon News
January 5, 2004
mensnewsdaily.com
A new TIME/CNN poll released on Friday indicates the gap between former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) for the Democrat nomination for president is now widening substantially.
When asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, nearly one-fourth of Democrat voters say they would chose Dean. Dean received support from 22 percent of Democrat voters in the poll, followed by Kerry at 10 percent, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) at 9 percent, and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark at 8 percent.
When asked who they would vote for if Dean were not in the race, Democrat voters in the poll said they would give Kerry the razor-thin lead with 14 percent, followed closely by Clark with 13 percent, Lieberman with 12 percent, and Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-MO) with 10 percent.
Despite the hypothetical poll numbers without Dean in the race, the poll of likely voters also finds that President George W. Bush is expected to beat each of the major Democrat presidential candidates in the November general election regardless of who wins the nomination.
In a head-to-head matchup, Bush defeats Dean 51-46, Lieberman loses 52-46, Kerry is crushed 54-43, Gephardt is beaten 53-44, Clark is clobbered 53-43, and Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) is edged 53-43.
These numbers indicate some slight differences in support for Bush over the previous TIME/CNN poll, which showed Bush leading by 13 percent over Dean, 13 percent over Lieberman, 8 percent over Kerry, 13 percent over Gephardt, 7 percent over Clark, and 14 percent over Edwards.
The latest poll finds Dean, Lieberman, Gephardt, and Edwards, who are most likely the only viable candidates left for the Democrat presidential nomination, have marginally narrowed the lead Bush had over them in the previous poll.
However, the poll also revealed that less than half (47 percent) of likely voters are paying "very close" or "fairly close" attention to the 2004 presidential election right now. One-fourth of likely voters are paying "very close" attention while an additional 22 percent are paying "fairly close" attention.
Another 25 percent say they are paying "some" attention to the race while 17 percent admit they are only paying attention "just a little." The remaining 11 percent did not offer a comment about the 2004 presidential election.
The poll also found public perception that the country is moving in the right direction and that things are going well in the United States jumped 12 points to 65 percent. Only 53 percent of likely voters believed this in a previous poll taken in mid-November.
The TIME/CNN poll of 1,004 adult Americans as well as 399 registered Democrat or Democrat leaning voters was taken on December 30, 2003 and January 1, 2004 and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The margin of error for the registered Democrat or Democrat leaning voters was at plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. |
