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Suzanne Struglinski
2/2/08 Deseret News A07
Deseret Morning News
Hillary Clinton's gender and Barack Obama's race will not give either
candidate an advantage or disadvantage as they continue their quest to get
the Democratic nomination for president, recent polls suggest.
With the Democratic race now narrowed down to two candidates, and the Super
Duper Tuesday election that could determine the nominees less than a week
away, the historic match-up could bring either the first female president or
the first black president to the White House.
A poll conducted among registered voters in Utah this week, found that 35
percent of Republicans polled and 30 percent of Democrats said the fact that
Clinton is a woman was neither an advantage or a disadvantage. Only 10
percent of Democrats thought it was "definitely an advantage" with
Republicans at 9 percent according to the poll, conducted by Dan Jones &
Associates for KSL Television and the Deseret Morning News.
Of those polled, 14 percent of Democrats said her gender was a disadvantage
compared with 13 percent of Republicans.
Meanwhile, 35 percent of Republicans and 33 percent of Democrats said the
Obama's racial background is neither an advantage or disadvantage either.
According to the same poll, 14 percent of Republicans said Obama's race was
"definitely an advantage" compared to 9 percent of Republicans. It was
"definitely a disadvantage" for only 4 percent of Republicans and 8 percent
of Democrats.
A separate study of a Harris Poll, conducted by the Center for the Study of
Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University, found that one third of
the adults surveyed would be "angry or upset" if Obama were elected
president. The poll was taken between Jan. 15 and 22 among 2,302 U.S. adults
nationwide. It showed that just under 30 percent would have the same
negative feelings if Clinton were elected.
Taking the specific candidates out of the equation, about 25 percent of
those polled said they would be angry or upset if a woman was president
while 9 percent would feel the same way with a black person in the Oval
Office, according to the BYU results.
E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com |
