Howard Dean Now Clear Democratic Leader in National Poll

[sfecap]

Howard Dean Now Clear Democratic Leader in National Poll

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Howard Dean has established a strong national lead over all other candidates for the Democratic candidates. While the selection of the Democratic candidate will depend on the Iowa caucuses and primary elections in New Hampshire and many other states, the former Vermont governor has pulled ahead of all other candidates among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents nationwide.

The Harris Poll(R) finds that Dean is now the preferred candidate of 21% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, with a strong lead over Senator Joe Lieberman (10%), who is in second place, and all the other candidates.

These are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 993 adults, of whom 393 were Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents, surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive(R) between December 10 and 16, 2003.

In the two months since an earlier mid-October poll, Dean has increased his share of the vote from 11% to 21%, while Senator Lieberman has seen his share decline slightly from 13% to 10%.

Below Lieberman on this list, four candidates are bunched together, General Wesley Clark (7%), Congressman Richard Gephardt (7%), Al Sharpton (6%) and Carol Moseley-Brown (6%). Senator John Kerry, who was once regarded by some pundits as the strongest candidate is preferred by only four percent (4%), with Senator John Edwards (3%) and Congressman Dennis Kucinich at the end of the pack.

www.prnewswire.com/news/

[UnapologeticLiberal]

1. Nice

Of course, I don't put too much stock in national polls, but this is among the first that have shown anyone with a decisive lead.

[Quixote1818]

13. Only 52% know who Clark is?

I found this Poll really interesting. It shows Dean beating Clark 21 to 7 but 76% had heard of Dean and only 52% had heard of Clark. We can thank the Press for this. For people who actually plan to VOTE I think this makes things much closer.

The Harris Poll. Dec. 10-16, 2003. N=393 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents nationwide.


"Which of the following Democratic presidential candidates have you heard of? . . . And which one of these would you prefer to be the Democratic candidate?"

Name ID Preference
% %
Howard Dean 76 21
Joe Lieberman 85 10
Wesley Clark 52 7
Richard Gephardt 67 7
Carol Moseley Braun 43 6
Al Sharpton 70 6
John Kerry 65 4
John Edwards 58 3
Dennis Kucinich 27 1
Not sure n/a 34

[GRClarkesq]

2. Interesting, but irrelevent to the primary process

Unless you are running for a reason other than winning, such as Sharpton.

[bushisanidiot]

3. Yeah, Baby! There's NO Stoppin This Train!

I can't wait til the primaries! :)

[tinnypriv]

4. Peaking like a bitch

He's peaked!

[RetroLounge]

5. Again?

Seems Dean has peaked quite a few times in the past year...

[Debi]

6. Peaked?

I thought he was imploding (Kerry) or was it he was an asterik (Bush) or is he a liberal (DLC) or a conservative (Gephardt).....I cannot keep up with this!!!

[bleedingheart]

7. Went to a party last night and everyone was ABB

but most leaned Dean.

I think he may get it but in just two months we will know... and then we gotta get behind whoever gets the nomination and focus on bringing down shrub.

[Debi]

9. You got it

Bleeding heart...ABB!!!!

[Alexander]

8. Kerry is behind SHARPTON?

That's really awful.

[WindRavenX]

14. Ugh

Dean is the most popular, there's no doubt in that.
But there is still a great deal of doubt of whether or not he's the best canidate or the canidate to beat Bush,IMHO.

[Josh]

10. Newsweek Poll, taken after Saddam capture, has Liebemran down

and Clark in clear second position. This was taken December 10-16, might have bearing on that. Lieberman, if you'll recall, came out heavily against Dean after the capture, but while it took a couple of points off Dean, it seems to have taken *more* off Lieberman and added to Clark. In the Newsweek Poll, that is. I cite it only because it's slightly newer.

[lancdem]

11. This is kind of a nonsequitur

but this poll on http://www.pollingreport.com shows Bush with basically zero bump from the Saddam capture - he goes from 48 percent on Dec. 10-13 to 50 percent on Dec. 14-16. I'm not naive enough to think he didn't get a bounce (see every other recent poll) but I still find it worth noting.

[dolstein]

12. Like hell he is -- only 1 in 5 Democrats list him as their top choice

This is less a case of Dean being particularly strong than of everyone else being pretty weak.

[DFLforever]

15. I'll accept the alternative

The other candidates are weak but Dean is not!

[Gore1FL]

16. None are weak

Any of them could give Bush a run for his money. It is a matter of relative strengths as opposed to strength vs weakness.

The fact that Kerry, who is a front runner in a lot of scenarios is polling towards the bottom says more about the field's strength than depict weakness.