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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (3167)	11/8/2007 11:53:23 PM
From: zeta1961	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

Voters grill Obama on electability JASON CLAYWORTH REGISTER STAFF WRITER desmoinesregister.com November 8, 2007 Fairfield, Ia. — Democratic presidential Barack Obama faced questions from several voters today in southern Iowa about whether he could beat presidential party frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. Obama expressed confidence that he would. At least three people at two campaign stops called into question whether Obama, with less than two months from Iowa’s Jan. 3 primary, can overcome Clinton’s advantage over fellow Democrats in national polls. Polls also show that Giuliani, a former New York mayor, has wide support among Republicans. Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, responded that he doesn’t carry the same political baggage as Clinton, a former first lady whose health plan reform in the 1990s failed. That, he said, makes him a better candidate. But he needs a good showing in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation caucus or primary states, to convince the rest of the nation, he said. “This state is very important to me, this town is very important to me. That’s how we’ll win,” Obama said in Fairfield. As Obama was about to end his Fairfield stop, another audience member asked him if he could best Giuliani in the general election. “Current polls show that I am beating Giuliani right now,” Obama said. A poll released in May by Zogby International showed Obama leading all Republican opponents as opposed to Clinton, who trailed Arizona senator John McCain and Giuliani. Another poll, released Oct. 31 by Quinnipiac University, showed similar results. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released this week showed Clinton with the support of 50 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Obama had 22 percent and former North Carolina senator John Edwards had 15 percent. Most recent Iowa polls show a much closer race. In a poll released last month by the University of Iowa, for example, Clinton had 29 percent of support of likely Iowa Democratic caucusgoers as compared to 27 percent for Obama and 20 percent for Edwards. Des Moines resident Sam Pugh has attended campaign events for Clinton, Obama, , Edwards and Joe Biden, a U.S. senator from Delaware. Pugh, a retired teacher, said after Obama’s stop in Ottumwa that each of those candidates generally have similar views and goals. So, instead of issues, he’s looking more closely at which Democrat can win the general election and most successfully champion change in Congress. “I think she is so polarizing that it could lead to gridlock in Washington,” Pugh said of Clinton. Obama, on the third of a five-day campaign tour in Iowa, also began running a new Iowa television ad today. It focuses on the problems caused when executives at major companies are given huge bonuses or pay while some of their lowest-paid employees lose jobs and pensions. The ad features Cedar Rapids resident David Hartgrave, who lost most of his pension benefits after a company he worked for filed for bankruptcy. “It’s an outrage. And you’ve got to have someone in the White House who believes it’s an outrage,” Obama says in the ad.