The bitterness, the pastor, the money man, the terrorist connections and NAFTA would have ruined the presidential aspirations of any other candidate, but they haven't destroyed Barack Obama.
These have been the roughest six weeks of his candidacy, yet he's hanging close to Hillary Clinton in pre-primary polling in Pennsylvania, and remains comfortably ahead in North Carolina. Super Delegates are not turning their backs on the Illinois senator en masse. He remains slightly ahead of Republican John McCain in general election polling.
His unfavorable rating is up, but only by a few points.
The bottom line is that no one's fleeing him, despite problems that would in an era of sanity destroy his political career. But who said there's sanity left in politics?
So why aren't his early presidential campaign supporters, those who gleefully gobbled up his inspiring messages of hope and change, running away in droves? Simple. There's no one to run to.
The entire reason that Obama climbed to the top of the heap so quickly is that the terms "hope" and "change" aren't just pat phrases brought out in every election campaign. In 2008, people really do have a strong desire to break with the past. "Politics as usual" is unacceptable. Hope and change as voiced by Obama are tangible concepts this year.
Those who want hope and change might look askance at the comments of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but they aren't going to suddenly throw their support at Hillary Clinton. The New York senator is the inverse of the rule. She represents what people want change from. So does John McCain, though to a lesser extent.
Most Democrats will consciously say that what they want change from is all things George Bush, from his policies to his politics to his fumbled speech patterns. That means, though, that they also want away from all things Clinton, because there is so much in common with the last two presidencies. They've essentially ruled the White House in similar ways, except the only blue dress found in the Oval Office these days will belong to Mrs. Bush. When they say they want Bush out, what they're also telling you is they don't want the Clintons back in.
McCain has been somewhat able to craft an image of being above the fray, but as a longtime senator from Arizona and prime backer of the war in Iraq, he's no alternative to Obama, either.
So Barack Obama's supporters are staying with him through the turbulence and will continue to do so come hell or high water. He can say his comment about bitter blue collar workers and their clinging to guns and religion is just one of the "fake controversies" his opponents created, and his backers are fine with that. Lord only knows what's going to come out of his mouth next, or what unusual relationship he had in his past that will be revealed. It won't really matter to those who've made him their candidate.
---
Interesting statistics: according to Rasmussen Reports, Obama's unfavorable rating has been mostly 45 percent or above since November. You'd have thought that everyone was genuflecting at his televised presence, but that's not the case. In support of the first section of this post, his favorables peaked at 55 percent on Feb. 20 of this year and has fallen only 6 or 7 points since.
Clinton's unfavorables have mostly been above 50 percent except for a couple 48 percent readings on two or three days last month. She's been above 50 percent favorable only a few times, leading one to believe those days were anomalies.
McCain is now seen as 53 percent favorable and 45 percent unfavorable. His unfavorables haven't been close to 50 percent in two months, and his favorable rating has been north of 50 percent just about all year.
