Outside the Beltway

Outside the Beltway

Wherefore Art Thou, Oh Generic Candidate?

Steven L. Taylor
7

Via Gallup:  "Republican Candidate" Extends Lead vs. Obama to 47% to 39%

Registered voters by a significant margin now say they are more likely to vote for the "Republican Party’s candidate for president" than for President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, 47% to 39%. Preferences had been fairly evenly divided this year in this test of Obama’s re-election prospects.

While I understand that this is interesting in the abstract, I always find these polls to be amusing.  Clearly it is not hard for a fantasy to beat reality.

It would be interesting to do a long-term study of these types of polls to see how often a sitting president leads a generic opponent and what the prevailing national circumstances were if/when that was the case?

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7 responses to “Wherefore Art Thou, Oh Generic Candidate?”

  1. Tlaloc Avatar
    Tlaloc

    It’s mostly useful as another form of measuring discontent with Obama rather than his likelihood to win re-election. In other words its a counterpart to the favorable/unfavorable numbers.

  2. MKS Avatar
    MKS

    The Republicans would probably have to nominate Mr. Ghaddafi – or someone equally oppressive – to prevent me from casting a GOP vote in 2012. If they were to nominate him, I would abstain from casting a vote for President in the upcoming general election.

    Otherwise, it’s GOP, generic or instantiated.

  3. Kylopod Avatar
    Kylopod

    I think they should start including Zombie Reagan, who would probably score higher than any of these schlemiels.

  4. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    You do understand that ‘wherefore’ doesn’t mean ‘where’, don’t you?

  5. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Ben: I will go ahead and admit that no, I either did not know it meant “why” or I had forgotten, having not read the play in at least 25 years. Although “why” works in its own way.

  6. Kylopod Avatar
    Kylopod

    Wizard of Oz seemed to make that mistake in the song “If I Only Had a Heart.” It’s an old one.

  7. Tlaloc Avatar
    Tlaloc

    I think they should start including Zombie Reagan

    Likey

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