Let’s let pollster John Zogby speak in his own words:
This is stunning. Dean’s surge seems to be at a heavy cost to Kerry, who led Dean in previous New Hampshire polling. Dean has also taken from Gephardt’s standing, and from the undecideds. His support is really across the board … both Congressional districts, men and women, Democrats and independents, liberals and moderates. He’s the candidate to watch at the top of the scale, while some of those down the line might re-think their candidacy at this point.
Coupled with word today that the campaign is hinting the $10.3m goal may be “conservative” and I think it’s safe to say we’re on the verge of a sea change in the race.
I still find it amazing that with all the molds and conventional wisdom the Dean campaign has broken and the accompanying success that the representatives of the other candidates continue to fall back on the same old tactics and criticisms. The longer they don't understand what is really happening here, the better off the Dean cmapign is. Politics has moved on from the TV era began in 1960. TV still matters but the internet has empowered the people again. I've always said the internet was democratic with a little "d." Maybe Dean ismaking it a capital D :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that the old guard seems to think that the internet is "new" and that it's populated by a bunch of tech geeks, not their core audience. The fact is that the mainstream media's core audience has abandoned it for the internet. What Dean's campaign has captured is the community of the internet, and the attention of people like me and my friends who don't have time to watch the news (and sit here screaming at the TV when we do), who sit in front of computers all day at work and then again in the evenings, and who want to share information freely and quickly. The momentum is staggering and completely incomprehensible to the old guard.
ReplyDeleteLiving here in NH I can tell you that I am not at all surprised by the shifts in the polling. Half of my neighbors escaped "Taxachusetts" and they, rightly or wrongly, will not vote for anyone who is associated with MA and the Democratic establishment down there. Further, Dean's outspokenness appeals to the libertarian audience here. To win in this state, it's about showing your independence and your willingness to stand up for your beliefs.
Jim:
ReplyDeleteI concur completely. Through work I know a lot of conservative economists. I toured one of them around the DFA site the other day and they were just shocked at what is going on. Republicans have had grass roots via talk radio but the internet is the domain of the young and that is where Bush can be defeated. I am 43 so I don't qualify but I am very encouraged by what I see in Chicago and at the Meetup I help organize. I remeber reading that Bush did much better among the younger voters than previosu Republican candidates. Shifting that alone is enough to elect Dean.
It Consist of Howard dean's 20-21point lead on john kerry in New hampshire?
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