CBS News Reports Gender Not a Difference for Dem Voters
November 7th, 2007
From CBS News:
Among Democratic primary voters in the October CBS News Poll, men were just as likely as women to support Hillary Clinton for the nomination (just over 50 percent in both cases), and Democratic men and women expressed generally similar views of her. More than seven in ten male and female Democratic primary voters viewed Clinton favorably, two-thirds said she would unite the country if elected, and very few – only about 5 percent of each sex – agreed with one perceived Clinton weakness: that she has less honesty and integrity than others in public life.
So what does this mean? We can see a few things. 1) The idea that Clinton’s courting of women is turning men off, at least with Democrats, isn’t the case. 2) That the constant barrage of questions about Clinton’s “honesty & integrity” by the Democratic field is not making it to the public, at least with this sample size.
The article goes on further to say that a lack of a gender gap is not true amongst independents:
Independent women were 12 points more likely than independent men to have a favorable opinion of Clinton. And they were 11 points more likely to withhold any judgment about whether or not they would vote for her if she were the Democratic nominee. While a plurality of men independents saw Clinton as someone who would divide the country, the reverse was true of women independents: women were more likely to see her as someone who would bring people together.
So what can we find there? Somewhat good news for Clinton. It means that campaigning by Clinton targeted at women is working amongst independents and that there could be a swell of support amongst them (60% of voters who actually turn out are women). We should expect that with independents there will be larger unfavorable ratings for her because Independents could comprise an equal measure of those who lean conservative as those who lean liberal. Conservative men would undoubtedly be skeptical of Clinton.
However one would assume conservative women would also be skeptical of Clinton. If she is polling well with this group though, it means she could potential turn enough independent women toward her campaign to have a substantial impact at the polls.
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