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The Unity Schtick Is a Bad GE Strategy Too: Clinton Beats McCain, Obama Loses To McCain

By Big Tent Democrat

In Monday's South Carolina debate, John McCain and who could beat him was a big topic. Both John Edwards and Barack Obama argued they could beat John McCain and Hillary Clinton could not. Sorry Barack, the polls do not support you:

Clinton 46
McCain 42

Obama 41
McCain 42

The interesting finding here is Obama simply does not have the type of solid support with DEMOCRATS that Clinton does. And he runs no better with Independents against McCain than does Clinton. The moral of the story? The Kumbaya Unity schtick is a BAD general election strategy. There is no reason for it. Obama needs to jettison it NOW. It hurts him in the primaries. And would hurt him in a general election against McCain. More . . . In a Clinton-McCain race, Clinton wins Democrats 83-11, loses Republicans 74-13 and splits Indies 39-39. Clinton's bond with Democratic base voters is the key to her lead here. By contrast in a Obama-McCain race, Obama wins Dems by only 74-18. He loses Republicans by an even wider margin than Clinton 81-12 and splits Independents 37-37. So the Kumbaya strategy garners Obama LESS Republican votes and no advantage among Independents. It seems clear now that Obama's Unity schtick is an utter failure, both in the primaries and the GE. The question now is is Obama even electable against McCain?

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 24, 2008 (boomark / email).