GOP Nominee
Former Candidates
According to the lastest Gallup survey, nearly two-thirds of Americans now believe the country is ready for a black and/or woman President. Mormons, Atheists, and Gays/Lesbians did not fair as well.
2006 Sep 21-24 (sorted by “yes, ready”) Yes, ready
No, not ready
No opinion
%
%
%
Woman 61
38
1
African American or black 58
40
2
Jew 55
42
3
Hispanic 41
58
1
Asian 33
64
2
Latter-Day Saint or Mormon 29
66
5
Atheist 14
84
2
Gay or lesbian 7
91
2
Surpisingly, whites feel way more confident that America is ready to elect an ethnic minority President than the minorities themselves do:
Perceptions That Americans Are Ready to Elect a President With Following Characteristic, by Race
White
Non-white
%
%
Woman 59
65
Black 64
43
Jew 60
43
Hispanic 42
37
Asian 37
23
Mormon 32
24
Atheist 16
9
Gay 6
10
And, not so surprisingly, of course, Republicans feel far more confident about electing a minority President than do Democrats. But, after all, the GOP is the Party of Lincoln:
Perceptions That Americans Are Ready to Elect a President With Following Characteristic, by Party Affiliation
Democrat
Independent
Republican
%
%
%
Woman 64
65
54
Black 49
59
67
Jew 48
59
58
Hispanic 34
42
46
Asian 26
39
35
Mormon 21
29
37
Atheist 8
21
14
Gay 7
10
4
And, of course, this is merely a survey of people’s perceptions about the nation as a whole being ready to elect such Commanders in Chief. A CBS News/New York Times survey conducted from January 20-25 this year found that as far as personal willingness to vote for such candidates, 92% said they would vote for a female President while only 5% said they would not.
I think this should pretty much put a fork in the debate over whether or not America is “ready for a female President”.
October 3rd, 2006 at 10:09 pm
I always found it funny that whites support minority candidates more than minorities do, but this is the first time I’ve seen it divided by party. I love it when the numbers just go your way. Of course, most of the party difference is the liberals thinking that those “close-minded Republicans” would never elect a minority.
October 3rd, 2006 at 10:24 pm
Wow, this is not a good poll for Team Romney. A whooping 2/3rds of the country (66%) say that they’re not ready for a Mormom president. Given this, I don’t see how even if he ran a perfect campaign that Romney could turn enough of those people around to not cost him the election. More and more, it’s becoming clear that only McCain and Giuliani will be able to defeat the Dems in 2008. Nominating anyone else is a surefire way to lose.
October 3rd, 2006 at 10:46 pm
This poll says nothing about how willing whites are to support a non-white president. It is a poll about the perception that America is ready to support a non-white. Those are two different things.
Likewise, this is not a poll showing 66% of people unwilling to vote for a mormon. This is a poll showing 66% of people perceiving the country to be unwilling to do so. This is fueled in great part do to the old “well, from what I’ve heard…” story…people who don’t know much about mormons aside from “Big Love” and the Warren Jeffs reports.
When you put a face, a name, a candidate onto these broad categories, everything changes. I can’t emphasize how dumb it is to simply describe a candidate by color or religion and expect the 2008 polls to turn out the same way. How many democrats would vote for a southern baptist? What if his name was Clinton?
October 4th, 2006 at 12:52 am
Governor Romney is in fine shape. Look at how much money he is raising and the quantity and quality of the staff he has hired.
What matters is the ability of any of these folks to get off to a fast start at the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries. And, of course, the New Hampshire primary is in the backyard of Governor Romney.
These polls reflect name recognition as much as anything at this stage and are not subject to political campaigning, political advertising, or debates. Anyone who doesn’t think Governor Romney is going to be a formidable candidate in 2008 is failing to view such polls in their proper context and not understanding the lay of the land.
October 4th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Murphy, I understand your point, but while Republicans may not be anti-Mormon, they are anti-Democrat, and if 63% believe a Mormon Republican nominee would lose in
the general election to a Democrat, Romney isn’t going to get their vote in the Primary. True, there is time to change that perception, but he has a lot of work cut out for him, based on this poll.
October 5th, 2006 at 10:19 am
Thanks for giving us the information about strong support a woman president and also for
an African=American. To have such a well=respected long time polling company like Gallup asking
about support for a woman / or a minority at this time is also historic.
Condi Rice is doing her job and it is as if she is auditioning for the next step up for 2008.
This is clearly showing the support of the people. Thanks for the info.