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New poll - Michelle Obama less favorable than Cindy McCain
In a new Associated Press-Yahoo News poll, when comparing the two potential first ladies, Michelle Obama fared poorly against Cindy McCain.
The public hasn't taken to Michelle Obama yet, especially whites. And it's got a question about Cindy McCain: Who is she? People are divided over whether they like the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, with 30 percent seeing her favorably and 35 percent unfavorably, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Wednesday.This is not surprising, in that 3 in 10 Americans admit to racial bias. Michelle, who is African-American and a Princeton- and Harvard-educated lawyer, is still suffering from smear attacks questioning her patriotism, after her remark last February in Wisconsin: "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country"
They tilt positively toward the spouse of Republican hopeful John McCain, by 27 percent to 17 percent.
In other words: While the two women are about equally liked, Michelle Obama is twice as disliked as Cindy McCain.
Even in this article, the word “really” has been conveniently edited out of the quote. I am an audio engineer, I edit dialog for a living. If you go here and listen to the speech, you can tell the word really was edited out of the speech. Quite frankly, I've done better editing jobs! Cindy McCain, however, appears to receive a hands-off treatment from the media.
"Cindy seems like she's laid back and not trying to run her husband," said Linda Kaiser, 60, a Republican and church secretary from Clairton, Pa. "It's nice to have a brain, but they should let their husband be president."Of course, the media has all but ignored Cindy’s sordid past, like her illicit affair with McCain while he was still married to his first wife, Carol. Also over-looked is Cindy’s documented addition to opioid painkillers, which it is said was aggrevated by the emotional distress she suffered from the Keating Five scandal, in which she was implicated. Cindy was a bookkeeper who conveniently had difficulty finding receipts. Cindy resorted to stealing drugs to support her habit, from her own American Voluntary Medical Team, which she founded. Of course, the American public is not the brightest when it comes to discerning the facts...just look at the last eight years!
Cross posted <A href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/2/115539/7157?new=true">here</a>
Comments (20)
AP/Yahoo poll?
That's deep.
You failed to outline the rest of the article:
Whites have an unfavorable view of Michelle Obama by 18 percentage points, while eight in 10 blacks like her. That is reminiscent of how Barack Obama fared in the Democratic primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In the AP-Yahoo News poll, whites saw Cindy McCain positively by 17 points, while one in eight blacks like her.
Michelle Obama does better with unmarried people and college graduates but is viewed poorly by people age 65 and up. Cindy McCain is seen more favorably by older people, those who are married and the more affluent, but she is less well-received by singles.
Cindy McCain is also more of a mystery. Nearly six in 10, or 56 percent, said they know too little to say much about her — exceeding the 34 percent clueless about Michelle Obama. Half of Republicans say they don't know Cindy McCain, while three in 10 Democrats say that about Michelle Obama.
Barack Obama's wife seems to incite stronger feelings. One in five had very negative views of her, triple the number who said so about John McCain's wife. One in 10 had very favorable views of Michelle Obama, double Cindy McCain's number.
"She's African-American, she's highly articulate, she's young and she seems highly devoted to her husband and her family," said Edythe Friley, 61, a retired teacher from Detroit. "She serves as a role model. There's not a parent on planet Earth who wouldn't want a daughter like this."
Michelle Obama has been in the spotlight more than Cindy McCain, including stories on whether she was trying to reshape her image.
Michelle Obama, 44, a lawyer and hospital administrator, took flak in February when she said she was proud of her country "for the first time in my adult life." Cindy McCain, 54, heiress to an Arizona beer distributorship, revealed in May that she earned more than $6 million in 2006 after saying she would never release her income tax returns.
The AP-Yahoo News survey of 1,759 adults was conducted from June 13-23 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. Included were interviews with 844 Democrats and 637 Republicans, for whom the margins of sampling error were plus or minus 3.4 points and 3.9 points, respectively.
July 2, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I also failed to mention that Cindy was just one of McCain's many liaisons. but she had the two qualities he was in desperate need of "power" (her daddy had the political pull) and "money". The beer is flowing!
July 2, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
i am sorry but even some blacks don't care for her. i was laughing a couple months ago when my boyfriend said he would definitely tell michelle to stop talking and that she needs to be put away in a corner somewhere. (he strongly supports OBAMA) personally she turns me off. her intelligence and accomplishments are great but she comes off as an angry black woman. i have friends that tire me out as well at times. every time you discuss anything that happens in life they have to couch it into terms of race. sometime you could have lost that job not because you were black but because you did not know what the heck you were doing ;-).
from what i have seen michelle has that same edge. she acts the very same way. i realize race is an issue but not everything that negatively happens to you is due to your race. it gets old and tiresome after a while. michelle is tiresome as well for me. this has nothing to do with looks, intelligence nor education which she has an abundance of.
July 2, 2008 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
1759 total Democrats and Republicans were polled. From the data supplied on the PDF at the website of the polling group, 11% were African-American, Non-Hispanic. We are basing the Black response on less than 200 people (0.11 X 1759 = 193.5).
We don't know if the study design had the statistical power to make any analysis of the African-American subgroup. Second, we don't know if there were equal numbers of Black democrats and Republicans, or if there was a higher number of Republicans. Obviously, there are Blacks who don't like Michelle Obama, but the 20% number may be garbage because of the study design.
It's more important to hear directly from the statisticians who did the study, than the math-challenged reporters who attempt to explain the numbers to us.
July 2, 2008 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
ah, the commenter michelle...
There she goes again making broad generalizations about a woman she doesn't know, based on media characterizations that are tissue paper thin, claiming that Michelle Obama "grates on her nerves" when she has never been in the woman's presence, claims Mrs. Obama is the "angry black woman" when she is nothing of the sort, claims to know black folks who "don't care for" Michelle Obama while tossing out a few backhanded compliments. Plus the gratuitous usage of "wright" is laughable.
Unfortunately we know that Cindy McCain trysted with John while he was still married to his first wife, has been addicted to prescription painkillers, stole from a charity she ran, and inherited the multi-million dollar business, which is quite different from starting a business, that she failed to pay taxes on a luxury condo in La Jolla.
Sigh...............
July 2, 2008 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jade, you have a point, but it is tiny: a generalization is a generalization. Most of us will not personally interact with a presidential candidate, but that fact will not prevent us from forming opinions and voting.
July 2, 2008 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Irony of ironies.
July 3, 2008 9:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, some of this is racism, but some of it is also sexism. Cindy plays the dutiful silent helpmeet wife. Michelle stands out as a strong individual. Personally, I like her better than him because I like strong, upfront people like her. She's a no-bullshit sort of woman.
It's not that important, though. People didn't like Hillary either when Clinton ran.
August 1992 Favorability Rating
Barbara Bush 85%
Hillary Clinton 32%
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE4DD123DF93BA35753C1A964958260
July 2, 2008 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Michelle Obama reminds me very much of Hillary Clinton when Bill was running. Both strong, intelligent women who tend to speak their minds, sometimes so directly that it can seem inartful (after the media takes a long answer and reduces it to a 5 second clip like "The first time in my adult life i am really proud of my country" or "Well I could have stayed home and baked cookies."
Michelle Obama also has the added factor of race, but I think we have seen that the mainstream media will pounce on perceived racial attacks while ignoring or participating in the sexist attacks in this campaign.
July 2, 2008 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Michelle Obama reminds me not at all of Hillary Clinton, thank the Lord. And everyone remember: we are voting on the Presidency, not the executive spouse.
July 2, 2008 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're absolutely right, Michelle is a quadruple threat to the Republicans; She's black, educated, strong and a woman. Cindy is a stereotypical Stepford Wife. I certainly hope she doesn't have to go through what Hillary had to endure, i.e., Whitewater, Travelgate, etc.
July 2, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
hmmm i am sorry but isn't it cindy mccain who is running a multi million dollar business? i think that woulds qualify her as more than a stepford wife. you guys are hillarious. so cidy is a triple threat to democrats...she's educated, strong, and a woman. i think the only thing that will matter is their personality. michelle grates on my last nerve, and i see he fitting right into the wright trinity atmosphere and cyndy seems arrogant and vindictive. neither women are an advantage to me.
July 2, 2008 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
hmmm i am sorry but isn't it cindy mccain who is running a multi million dollar business? i think that would qualify her as more than just a stepford wife. you guys are hillarious. so cindy is a triple threat to democrats...she's educated, strong, and a woman.
i think the only thing that will matter in the end is their personality. michelle grates on my last nerve, and i see her fitting right into the wright/trinity atmosphere and cindy seems arrogant and vindictive. neither women are an advantage to me. michelle is more of a liability or loose cannon. i spoke with a girl that works for her at U of C and said michelle was trying to explain to her that sometimes she says things inappropriately because she hasn't had much practice. well i guess you need to shut up and stay out of the way then before you lose your hubby's chances.
July 2, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
This ia blog. Anyone can assume whatever persona they desire. We can accept that there are African-Americans and co-workers at U of C job who do not like Michelle Obama. You do seem to run in circles with a great many of Michelle detractors.
On the other hand, you could be a Conservative living in another state running a scam.
July 2, 2008 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, she would have to be to stay married to a man who said this to her:
"At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c*nt." -to his wife, Cindy, after she playfully twirled his hair and said "You're getting a little thin up there," as reported in the book The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_temper_boiled_over_in_92_0407.html
Cindy inherited Hensley, she didn’t create it. As I understand it, the Senator’s son, Andrew takes more of an active role in its operation.
July 2, 2008 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cindy McCain does NOT run Hensley and Co. She chairs the board, but it is run by a CEO hired by the board. Certainly she has a say and she and other board members would step in if there was need or mismanagement - one assumes. But she is not the mega-businesswoman you assume she is.
Certainly if her business acumen were that great, she would not have been the bookkeeper whose mismanagement lost the receipts for his flights on Keating jet
July 2, 2008 9:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
that's practice speaking politically.
July 2, 2008 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Retarded polls that reduce the Presidential race to a popularity contest between the candidates wives are sickening. I don't think I've ever seen this kind of polling before, in any other Presidential race (maybe I'm wrong). One of the biggest problems we have on the left, or progressive side is that we're just too willing to help repeat the lies of the media & the right simply by expressing outrage about it. The effect is the same, it repeats the lie & therefore allows the seed of doubt to be planted. Observe if you will the discipline of the right in simply NOT responding to most attacks (unless they think they can benefit). I don't have a perfect answer, but I do believe we need a better strategy if we want better outcome...
July 2, 2008 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
well it's a god-send that we are casting that vote for obama and not michelle right?
to the MICHELLE--i think you are jealous of michelle obama. unless you can come here and spell out with direct quotes how and when michelle obama displayed angry black woman characteristics, i will reserve the right to say you are full of hot air and peeving green with envy!!! and i would bet money that you are not black and very much a republican, possibly male..i see a strong, intelligent woman who worships the ground her husband walks on...you ask michelle about the weather and she answers barack obama..you ask her about her favorite restaurant and she answers barack obama...he is obviously smitten with his wife and kids also..i guess this is all too much for the masses b/c we have been groomed to expect the angry black woman meme from black women and the philandering noncomitttal useless jigolo stereotype from black men..the obama's defy all stereostypes..
..i take nothing away from Cindy Mccain b/c i do believe with all her negatives, she has done some good in her life....again, we are casting that vote for either mccain or obama...not cindy nor michelle!!! if we can respect cindy barely escaped jail and who cheated with a married man, certainly we can cut a faithful black woman with out any sordid criminal background nor addictions, some slack for being "inartful" (obama 2008)
admit it--we as a society, fear strong, intelligent women and we just found out that intelligent black men fair only slightly better..
July 2, 2008 7:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mention Cindy McCain's $750,000 one month shopping spree, and the $50,000 each of her children spent, and you'll find most Americans do not like her one little bit.
July 3, 2008 7:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
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