Cattle Call 2004: 4/24

A little late this week, but I'm sure you'll all survive.

Last edition's rankings: 1) Kerry, 2) Dean, 3) Edwards, 4) Gephardt, 5) Graham, 6) Lieberman, 7) Sharpton, 8) Kucinich, 9) Moseley Braun, and others.

This week's rankings:

1. John Kerry
The first to respond to Santorum's homophobic remarks, further proof he's willing to go to bat for the base. Latest NH poll shows a little more daylight between him and second-place Dean.

2. Dick Gephardt
Still strong in (meaningless) national polls. Universal health care proposal got lots of good ink, and moves the health care debate leftward. At this stage of the game, he has even co-opted Dean on the issue (though I'm sure Dean will counterattack).

Currently third in NH, which is respectable. He still needs to win Iowa, however. The next poll from that state will be interesting.

3. Howard Dean
Old: Anti-war candidate
New: Gay rights candidate

Santorum gave Dean the opportunity to shake the "anti-war" label, and Dean ran with it.

However, he's still facing a lot of the "can he reinvent himself" stories in the press. Lucky for him it's early, and the knives still haven't been sharpened against him (see Edwards).

Tiny drop in NH poll offset by excellent showing in California poll (7 percent).

(Incidentally, Dean's fundamentalist supporters are starting to get creepy. Look guys, I like Dean as much as the next guy, but relax. The world doesn't revolve around the guy. You won't gain new supporters by denigrating those that support other Democrats.)

4. John Edwards
Campaign finance "scandal" is about the most overblown ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Yet Bush's Justice Department has announced it will step in and investigate the event. I hope this is an overreach for the Bush Administration. They should've let their Mighty Wurlitzer do the smearing. Now it's nakedly political.

And people are still making hay that he got most of his money from trial lawyers. He did. Who cares? I'd be more worried about his persistently poor showing in every single poll on the race -- Iowa, NH, SC, or national.

5. Joe Lieberman
Still looks good in the national name ID polls, as well as last week's Field Poll in California. However, that doesn't really translate into anything tangible. Not even money, as the last fundraising quarter demonstrated.

6. Bob Graham
He seemed more appealing before he actually started running. Now, well, he's kind of scary. He did call for an invasion of Syria. And he's definitely not "connecting" with voters. His California trip was a disaster.

And why doesn't he have a website yet?

7. Al Sharpton
Can't wait to see him at the South Carolina debate. A pox on those who wish he would exit the race!

8. Kucinich
Eccentric, weird, on the fringes with a strong anti-abortion record. He's our Gary Bauer.

9. Carol Moseley-Braun
She made her point. Whatever that might've been. Time to bow out.

Others: Biden (won't run), Clark (probably won't run), and Hart (probably will run).

Update: Here are the California Field Poll (4/1-6) results, since I didn't publish them earlier. (PDF Source)

Candidate	Overall	Men	Women
Lieberman	22	15	26
Kerry	16	18	15
Gephardt	12	17	9
Dean	7	8	6
Moseley Braun	4	5	3
Sharpton	4	4	3
Edwards	3	3	3
Graham	2	4	1
Kucinich	1	1	1
Undecided	29	25	33

Note the interesting gender gap with Lieberman and Gephardt. I wonder what it means, if anything.

Posted April 24, 2003 07:45 AM | Comments (178)