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ABC News: “Danger Signs” for Obama

By medusa on June 17, 2008 at 2:50 PM in ABC News, Bamboozling, Barack Obama, Gender Bias, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Women

While the question of how Barack Obama became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee has many of us speculating, his candidacy for president is being questioned by voters outside of the party. His lack of experience stands out more vividly, now that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate with experience and know-how, has dropped out:  

Obama faces an additional problem that only half of the voters saying he has the necessary experience to be president.  

“If you look at the key question of experience, that may be what’s holding him back,” Stephanopoulos said. “Only 50 percent of voters say that Barack Obama has the experience to be president. A full 46 percent say, no, he doesn’t have the experience . . . That’s one of the reasons they are going on the foreign trips.”

According to the same ABC News today, Obama did not get the traditional bounce in the polls after “defeating” Hillary Clinton and receiving her endorsement:

No Bounce, Resistance from Clinton Supporters 

Apparently, Obama claims that his lack of bounce is due to McCain getting a free pass from the media. ABC sees the humor in this:

During the primary,”John McCain basically was getting a pass, both from the media . . . as well as from other opponents. And so I think that explains it,” said Obama of the close race. It is an ironic accusation from Obama.

Contrary to certain pundits (if we consider Frank Rich a pundit), Obama’s biggest problem comes from convincing women to vote for him.  And not just former Hillary supporters: 

Women, particularly married white women, however, may be a problem for Obama, according to the Washington Post/ABC poll. It showed that McCain has a 20 point advantage over Obama among married white women, a group that George Bush also won in the last two presidential elections.

As we know, Obama’s most loyal group of supporters are the young, many of whom are first-time voters. But these voters are not reliable, and the Obama campaign knows it. Moreover, older voters, who make going to the polls a priority, create another problem for him:

While Obama runs well among younger voters, they are not always reliable when it comes to showing up at the polls. Meanwhile, he is 12 points behind McCain among the more reliable older voters 

Adding to Obama’s woes, former Hillary supporters are not flocking to him now, as he claimed they would early in the primary.  Elections are won and lost with the votes of women: 

In addition, nearly a quarter of Clinton’s voters are holding back on their support, according to the ABC News/Washington Post poll. ”If that number stays that high, it will be difficult for Barack Obama to win,” Stephanopoulos said.

Yes, this is what we’ve been saying, isn’t it?