Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

Byron
York is confused, more than usual, that is. He just doesn’t understand this
poll:

… .. On the Democratic side, Edwards performs best against each of the leading Republicans. In addition to beating Huckabee by 25 percent and McCain by 8 percent, the North Carolina Democrat beats Romney by 22 percentage points (59 percent to 37 percent) and Giuliani by 9 percentage points (53 percent to 44 percent). While the survey shows McCain and Edwards performing best in their respective fields, both candidates continue to significantly trail their parties’ front-runners significantly. In the national horse race numbers released Monday, McCain trails Giuliani by 11 percentage points, and Edwards is behind Clinton by 26 percentage points. “Edwards is the only Democrat who beats all four Republicans, and McCain is the only Republican who beats any of the three Democrats,” Holland said. “Some might argue this shows that they are the most electable candidates in their respective parties. … ..

This is what the Edwards camp has been saying for a long time. There’s just
one problem. They didn’t believe it. If they had maybe Edwards wouldn’t have
gotten in the mud and sounded so desperate with his personal attacks against
Clinton that went well beyond policy. Maybe they wouldn’t have held off on attacks on Obama, and really made the play to be the “anti Hillary” candidate. But for whatever reasons they didn’t. That mistake is even more glaring with the news about Obama from the Politico.com today. Even after the 2004 election, Edwards
didn’t trust that the primary contest is a marathon, not a sprint. After getting
a less than exciting campaign launch, which needed to be something splashy because
his entry into the race was a foregone conclusion, Edwards didn’t turn to define himself anew from his small town roots, building a campaign narrative that revolved around John Edwards, the American Dream, but instead dithered from subject
to subject, even letting Richardson take the forefront on Iraq. That was the
biggest mistake he made, compounding it by not committing to getting troops
out of Iraq by 2013.

So the polls that do show Edwards leading all the Republican hopefuls don’t
do him much good today. To most Democrats, he’s damaged goods. He went negative once
too often and doesn’t have a real campaign beyond Iowa. In New Hampshire he
hardly breaks double digits. His national Democratic support is weak.

But it’s clear that the polling has made at least one person nervous: Barack
Obama. That’s because Edwards could win Iowa, which would be really bad news
for Barack. That’s likely why Obama
dropped oppo research on Edwards yesterday. An update by Jake Tapper offers this beauty: The
Obama campaign says this document came because a local union requested information
on the differences between him and his opponents.

Again with blaming someone other than the candidate himself. The local union
made him dump oppo on Edwards. Uh-huh. And Robert Novak made him parrot that
traitorous gasbag.

The poll numbers for Edwards in this particular poll are good news. They’d
matter if Edwards hadn’t sabotaged his own campaign. Democrats nationally still
prefer Clinton.

Democratic voters, on the whole, see their candidates considerably more favorably than Republicans see theirs. Mrs. Clinton is viewed favorably by 68 percent of Democrats, followed by Mr. Obama, viewed favorably by 54 percent. Mr. Edwards is viewed favorably by 36 percent. … .. The latest poll found that nationally, Mrs. Clinton continued to enjoy many advantages. By a large margin, she is viewed as most electable: 63 percent of Democratic voters said that of all the Democrats in the race, she would have the best chance in the general election, compared with 14 percent who named Mr. Obama and 10 percent for Mr. Edwards. Mr. Obama’s argument that Mrs. Clinton would be a divisive figure who could not accomplish anything as president does not appear to be breaking through nationally: 65 percent of Democratic voters said she would be able to bring the country together; 54 percent said the same of Mr. Obama. Poll Finds G.O.P. Field Isn’t Touching Voters

It’s hard to tout you’re most electable when your campaign is on the ropes.