Friday, October 17, 2008

Candidate Popularity, or Lack Thereof

THIS IS A REPRINT FROM MY JUVENILE MYSPACE BLOG:


Okay, so this 2nd and final entry for Open Forum this week again comes from Stoner.

For any who may have followed his blog since the beginning of the campaign season know he was a pretty big Joe Biden fan. Joe Biden received little support in Iowa, and subsequently dropped out of the race to avid wasting money elsewhere. Who knows how he would've done elsewhere. Biden, despite his reputation as a longwinded blowhard, has smalltown working class roots that should identify with Iowans, but apparently this go around, it failed to garner much attention.

So he wants to know: How come hardly anyone gave two hoots about Joe Biden until he became Obama's running mate? If it's not just because he's joined forces with Obama, as I suspect, then what is it that changed? And what if the ticket positions were flipped?

My take is not so much that they are caring so much about Joe himself, but rather the fact that he is on the Obama ticket. Generally speaking, a vice presidential candidate will always garner more popularity and support because they are with the overall popular candidate of that party. Take for instance, Sarah Palin. Until she was announced as McCain's running mate, 90% (a low estimate, I'm sure) of Americans, nevermind conservatives, even knew who she was, nevermind care.

If the ticket positions were flipped, well Joe would obviously have popular support of the party and its voter base. How Obama did previously, his popularity would soar as the new VP pick. Plus, when it comes to garnering minority support, Obama would be the obvious choice...even though 90% of minorities vote for the democrat anyways. But with the choice of Biden by Obama, it is helping to gain some of the older more traditionalist white voters to support the Obama ticket. Had Obama picked someone like say Jesse Jackson, or his friend Deval Patrick, he would have lost a lot of support he enjoys today over McCain, by demographics alone.

READERS.....Your thoughts???

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Here's a question: on the technology gaffe-o-meter, are the Democrats and Republicans now even after Biden's asking for the "website number" which came after Bush's reference to the "internetS"? Just asking.