MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (AFP) - Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama, leading the polls here, is not just attracting scores of young voters, but also seducing women and independents ahead of Tuesdays primary.
His triumph last week over rival Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses was due in part to voters under 30 who flocked to his camp, drawn by his message of generational change.
According to the analyses of the results, six in 10 Democratic Party activists who turned out to caucus in the largely white, largely farming heartland state were under 30.
But the backing of young voters will not be enough to secure Obama the Democratic nomination for the November 4 presidential polls, and his place in history as he aims to be the countrys first black president.
For that he has also to win over women, who make up some 59 percent of the primary process at national level according to the Pew Research Center, as well as independent voters, who are neither confirmed Democrats nor Republicans.
Clinton, who is fighting hard to avoid a second defeat in New Hampshire, has been put on the defensive, tackling head-on Obamas contention that she represents the status quo and all that is wrong with Washington politics.
"I embody change. I think having the first woman president is a huge change," she argued Saturday.
But in Iowa, it was the charismatic Obama with his ready smile, who largely attracted the womens vote, with 35 percent picking him for their candidate for the Democratic ticket and 30 percent choosing Clinton.
Women under 45 mostly plumped for Obama, 50 percent of them compared to 21 percent for Clinton. But women aged over 45 mostly preferred Clinton, who won 36 percent of their vote compared to 24 percent for Obama.
Two polls out Monday showed the two are closely locked in a bitter tussle for the womens vote in New Hampshire.
According to a Gallup poll for USA Today, Obama is slightly ahead among women voters, with some 36 percent to 34 percent.
But a similar poll for the public television channel C-Span gave Clinton the edge with 37 percent to Obamas 33 percent.
"Its almost Iowa redux. In the closing days in Iowa we saw Clinton losing her strong support among women and its happening again," said John Zogby, director of the Zogby Institute, which carried out the poll for C-Span.
Another important body of voters are the independents. Out of the 850,000 registered voters in New Hampshire, about 44 percent refer to themselves as independents, compared to 26 percent of Democrats and 30 percent Republicans.
The New Hampshire primaries, a key step in choosing nominees for the presidency, have a important wrinkle in allowing independents to cast their ballots in either party contest.
And according to Gallup, six out of 10 plan to vote on the Democratic side of the primaries. Of those, 46 percent are said to be lining up behind Obama, compared with just 23 percent for Clinton.
Those figures could also prove a severe blow to the campaign of Arizona Republican senator and Vietnam war veteran John McCain, who is counting on winning over independent voters for the Republican nomination.
"McCain simply needs more indies, but that clearly seems to be Obamas turf," said Zogby.
Obama is also seeking to spread a message of bi-partisanship, and thus hoping to win over even Republican voters, dismayed by the fractured Republican camp.
"I knew that we had seen Republicans in our events because they would whisper to me afterwards, shaking hands, Barack, Im a Republican, but I support you," he said Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment