It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.


 
One of the biggest knocks against Howard Dean is that, compared to other presidential candidates, he is "unelectable" in a contest versus George W. Bush.

That's an empirically assessable contention, folks. Let's look at two national polls, one from Fox News and one from Newsweek, both from nationally representative samples of registered voters this month. See Polling Report for more details.

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Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. Nov. 6-7, 2003. N=809 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 4 (total sample).

Q: "Suppose the next general election for president were being held TODAY and you had to choose between George W. Bush, the Republican, and [see below], the Democrat -- who would you vote for?" If "Other" or "Undecided": "As of TODAY, do you LEAN more toward Bush, the Republican, or [see below], the Democrat?"

George W. Bush, 49%
Howard Dean, 49%
Other/Undecided, 6%

George W. Bush, 48%
Wesley Clark, 45%
Other/Undecided, 7%

George W. Bush, 48%
Joe Lieberman, 44%
Other/Undecided, 8%

George W. Bush, 49%
John Kerry, 45%
Other/Undecided, 6%

George W. Bush, 49%
Dick Gephardt, 44%
Other/Undecided, 7%

FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. Nov. 18-19, 2003. N=900 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 3.

Q: "If the election for president of the United States were held today, for whom would you vote if the candidates were Republican George W. Bush and Democrat ______?"

George W. Bush, 49%
Howard Dean, 36%
Neither/Not Sure, 15%

George W. Bush, 49%
Dick Gephardt, 36%
Neither/Not Sure, 15%

George W. Bush, 49%
Wesley Clark, 36%
Neither/Not Sure, 15%

George W. Bush, 52%
Hillary Clinton, 38%
Neither/Not Sure, 10%

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OK, what can we learn from these results, besides that Fox News remains inappropriately Hillary-obsessed, since she is not running for President...? Howard Dean does no worse than the other major contenders for the Democratic nomination in polling head-to-head against George W. Bush. No better, no worse.

From this week's blog entries you'll notice that we're not Deanistas, Deaniacs, Deanyboppers, Clean-for-Deaners, or whatever the latest label might happen to be. But all of us at Irregular Times are puzzled by the bizarrely histrionic spasms emanating from the Democrat "Leadership" Council and the Democratic National Committee about the "unelectability" of Howard Dean.

So will someone set us straight? Will someone explain to me the factual, Factual, FACTUAL (hint: not hypothetical) basis on which the "unelectable" label has been applied to Howard Dean? Comment below!





Posted by James Cook at 9:18 AM. # (permalink)




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