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Poll: Obama More Likeable Than McCain |
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These questions are pretty silly, but it’s still not a bad thing that Americans would rather have Obama than McCain as a barbecue guest, by a 52-45% margin. As Glenn Greenwald has observed, Republicans try their damnedest to make every presidential election into a personality contest, because if the election is about issues, the Republicans lose. McCain doesn’t have much going for him. He helped get a wildly unpopular president re-elected, has accepted Bush’s endorsement and fundraising help, and has taken policy stances on Iraq, the economy, health care, and offshore drilling that are indistinguishable from Bush’s. The country is sick of the Bush years and wants a change. McCain’s one hope is that he can make this election about personality and convince people that he is more likeable or, and this can get icky quick, more like them. This silly BBQ poll question suggests that this is not 2004 or 2000, when voters saw Bush as a likeable chap they could have a beer with (never mind that he’s a recovered alcoholic). The media jumped all over this, painting Kerry and Gore as out of touch patricians, a nifty move given the fact that Bush has a patrician lineage to beat them all.
2008 is different. Obama is likeable, he is personable, he is someone people can relate to. He beats McCain handily on policy–people overwhelmingly side with Obama on the war in Iraq, the economy, and the need to change the course of the country after 8 years of Bush. McCain’s campaign sounds like it is in Keystone Kops territory.  If McCain can’t even beat Obama on likeablity, what’s left? I guess he’ll have to really, really amp up the fear factor. Lieberman is doing his best on that front.
