Hillary tops list of Democratic Party’s hopefuls
Recent polls conducted by independent polling organizations and colleges place Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, as the leading contender for the Democratic Party nomination for the 2008 presidential election.
In a Feb. 13-15 WNBC/Marist poll, Democratic voters were asked whom they would support if the democratic presidential primaries were held in 2006. Clinton won a majority of the opinions, at 40 percent. She beat former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, who received 16 percent, and former presidential candidate John Kerry, who received 15 percent.
In a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in January, registered voters were asked whom they would vote for if the 2008 presidential candidates were Clinton and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. A total of 48 percent said they would either vote for or consider voting for Clinton, while a total of 52 percent said they would vote likewise for Rice.
In another CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted in February, Clinton also placed at the top as the Democratic choice in the presidential primaries at 39 percent, beating Kerry at 15 percent and former vice president and presidential candidate Al Gore at 13 percent.
But some University of Tennessee students said that while Clinton is placing high in the polls as the Democratic choice for presidential candidate, they would not vote for her.
“I don’t know what to think about her,” Jack Smith, freshman in biology, said. “I don’t think highly of her.”
One of the leading Democrats who has been considered as a presidential candidate is Mark Warner, former governor of Virginia. In the February CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, Warner placed near the bottom of the list, at 5 percent.
But, Warner, according to one student, is a better choice for president because of his appeal to Southern voters.
“He’s liberal and from Virginia, so he carries the South,” Andrew Parsons, senior in microbiology, said. “He has a lot of similarities to Bill Clinton.”
Hillary Clinton, Parsons said, isn’t a realistic presidential candidate.
“I think she can’t win the actual election because she’s a woman.”
Tenn. Senator Frist emerges as early possibility
Scott Coolbaugh
News Editor
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist won a 2008 presidential poll conducted at a recent Southern Republican conference in Memphis.
Frist, R-Tenn., took first place at the Southern Republican Legislative Conference with 36.9 percent of 1,427 ballots cast at the event.
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished in a distant second with 14.4 percent.
President Bush and Virginia Sen. George Allen tied for fourth place on the list, even though Bush isn’t allowed to pursue a third term.
Arizona Sen. John McCain rounded out the top five.
Students on UT’s campus weighed in on the poll and who they would vote for out of possible Republican candidates.
“I would go with Condoleezza Rice,” said Stephanie Hanes, sophomore in retail and consumer sciences. “She’s a woman in a man’s position and she does it just as well.”
Hanes said she will probably vote conservative and that Rice has a feel for how the White House runs on a day-to-day basis.
“She knows how the White House works,” she said.
Jessica Matis, freshman in nursing, said she is from New York and liked Rudy Giuliani’s performance as mayor of New York City.
“I would vote for Rudy,” she said. “I think he did a really good job after 9-11. He was there to give the people of New York moral support. He was a good mayor.”
Another poll conducted by WNBC/Marist on Feb. 13-15 asked Republicans throughout the country which candidate they support to run for president in the 2008 election if the Republican primary were held today.
McCain, Rice and Giuliani tied for first place, with each receiving 22 percent of the vote. Next was former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich who resigned from his position in 1998. Gingrich was able to garner five percent from voters. Sen. Frist received just two percent of the vote in the nationwide poll. Other candidates listed were Romney, Allen and Gov. George Pataki, R-N.Y.
