Not only the Anti-Bush sentiment, but the record amount of people turning out for these primaries and caucuses. If conservatives thought people wanted nothing to do with anything attached to Clinton, just wait until November. Many many people feel that Bush lied to them, or conned 'em. Not to mention he's run up a record deficit the likes of which we've never seen. There's nothing I can think of that's better since he took office. Everything has gone down hill. WAY downhill. Our credibility throughout this world will take many many years to repair. The biggest case ever of "Crying Wolf" by the Bush Regime is gonna make it very difficult for future administrations to convince us and the world that some country poses a threat and we (U.S.) need to take action immediately.
"Oh sure, remember Iraq?"
Anti-Bush sentiment driving Democrats to polls
Exit polls reveal that beating the president is prime issueBy David Von Drehle
Updated: 6:45 a.m. ET Feb. 04, 2004The Democratic presidential contest went national yesterday, and what was true in Iowa and New Hampshire proved true coast to coast: Voters in these elections are deeply dissatisfied with President Bush, and defeating him in November is their prime issue, according to exit polls.
The belief that he can beat Bush continued to be Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry's greatest attribute with the Democratic electorate, the polls suggested. Even in South Carolina, where Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) handed Kerry his first defeat in this nomination fight, Kerry led 2 to 1 among voters who rated electability as the quality they cared most about in a candidate.
That advantage translates among Democrats all over the country, according to yesterday's exit polls. For the first time, southern, western and big-city voters were heard from; African American voters -- a key Democratic constituency -- voted in large numbers for the first time, as did Hispanics. Turnout was a record high for a Democratic primary in South Carolina and was twice the 2000 number in Arizona. Anti-Bush feeling varied a bit from place to place -- higher in Delaware, a little lower in South Carolina and the classic swing state of Missouri. But there was consistent dissatisfaction among primary voters on the economy, the war and Bush's performance.
"This is a party that is energized by a competitive race and regaining its political health," said Donna Brazile, manager of Al Gore's presidential campaign four years ago.
Dissatisfaction, anger
Bruce Reed, president of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, agreed. "The initial impressions that Kerry and Edwards have made so far, they are unbelievably positive, which is very good for the party," he said.
• Elections 2004
"There was a huge spike for Democrats in the last month," he added, referring to the opinion of the party's candidates expressed in various polls. "Part of that was Bush's lousy State of the Union, but it's also the race has made a very positive impression."
A significant slice of yesterday's voters went beyond dissatisfaction to "anger" at the administration -- half of the Democratic voters in Delaware, four in 10 in Missouri and one in three in Bush strongholds such as Oklahoma and South Carolina. But the candidate once thought to be the tribune of angry Democrats, former Vermont governor Howard Dean, was not a significant factor in yesterday's results.
But something new did happen -- a glimmer at least, in a couple of polls. In at least two states, compassion returned to the voting agenda. Having dominated presidential politics in the 1990s, the era of Bill Clinton feeling the "pain" of voters and of Bush's "compassionate conservatism," the caring card appeared to fade with the catastrophe of Sept. 11, 2001.
Edwards managed to beat Kerry where voters ranked "cares about people like me" alongside toughness and electability as the most important qualities in a candidate. If the spotlight now swings to him as the most viable challenger to the front-runner, he may get a chance to revive compassion as a national issue, even as he tries to neutralize Kerry's advantage with anti-Bush voters, some analysts said.
"He talks with the right accent, but also with a message that reflects concern about poverty and about jobs," Brazile said. "The question is whether he has the organization in other states to take that message national."
Candidates, like generals, want to fight on terrain of their choosing. The candidate who was a general, retired NATO commander Wesley K. Clark, picked Oklahoma, and fought a tense battle with Edwards for that victory. Boasting of his roots in next-door Arkansas, and promoting his military experience, Clark convinced voters that he is tough enough to stand up to Bush and ready to be president.
But nationally, exit polls said, that same voter segment continued to belong to Kerry.
Tough candidate wanted
As in Iowa and New Hampshire, voters in most of yesterday's seven contested states settled on Kerry if they wanted a tough candidate who could beat Bush in November. That is the terrain he has chosen. Kerry's campaign sprang to life last month as he invigorated his speeches and cranked the machismo. He likes to campaign surrounded by war veterans, or hoisting beers while watching football, or landing his own helicopter -- all the while daring Bush to "bring it on."
The exit polls suggest that Kerry may have established a powerful loop with primary voters, revolving around the idea of electability. It started in Iowa on Jan. 19, where voters ranked him first on ability to beat Bush. His decisive victory then bolstered his claim to be the most electable candidate the following week in New Hampshire.
With each win, he looks more like a winner. The opposite effect can be seen in voter assessments of Dean.
In Iowa, about one in five Democrats looking for the candidate best able to win in November voted for Dean. After his Iowa loss, that proportion dropped to one in 10 in New Hampshire on Jan 27. And yesterday in South Carolina and Oklahoma, he ranked in low single digits by the same measure. With each loss, his rating on the most important issue for this year's voters has dropped significantly.
The fact that Edwards beat Kerry in South Carolina, and that Clark joined Edwards in a very tight race for first in Oklahoma showed that it is possible to interrupt Kerry's momentum among primary voters. Edwards fared well where he was able to focus the time, money and organization to shift the fight toward his preferred terrain -- the compassion issue.
The first-term senator described, as a southerner to other southerners, his humble background, his battles as a trial lawyer on behalf of injured children, and his analysis that there are now "two Americas," one for the very privileged "and the other for everybody else." His victory speech in South Carolina went directly at the compassion vote. "Tonight, somewhere in America, a 10-year-old girl will go to bed hungry," Edwards said. "She's one of 35 million Americans who live in poverty each day. . . . Well, tonight, we see her."
Whether any candidate can interrupt Kerry's connection with anti-Bush voters across a range of states in quick succession -- enough to topple Kerry's bandwagon -- that is the story of the campaign ahead.
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