Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal: "Why Hillary Won"

[kpete]

Why Hillary Won
By KARL ROVE
January 10, 2008; Page A15

What would Shakespeare's Jack Cade say after the New Hampshire Democratic primary? Maybe the demagogue in "Henry VI" would call for the pollsters to be killed first, not the lawyers.


The opinion researchers find themselves in a difficult place after most predicted a big Obama sweep. It's not their fault. The dirty secret is it is hard to accurately poll a primary. The unpredictability of who will turn out and what the mix of voters will be makes polling a primary election like reading chicken entrails -- ugly, smelly and not very enlightening. Our media culture endows polls -- especially exit polls -- with scientific precision they simply don't have.

But more interesting than dissecting the pollsters is dissecting the election returns, precinct by precinct. Sen. Hillary Clinton won working-class neighborhoods and less-affluent rural areas. Sen. Barack Obama won the college towns and the gentrified neighborhoods of more affluent communities. Put another way, Mrs. Clinton won the beer drinkers, Mr. Obama the white wine crowd. And there are more beer drinkers than wine swillers in the Democratic Party.

Mrs. Clinton won a narrow victory in New Hampshire for four reasons. First, her campaign made a smart decision at its start to target women Democrats, especially single women. It has been made part of the warp and woof of her campaign everywhere. This focus didn't pay off in Iowa, but it did in New Hampshire.

more (try not to hurl)at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119992615845679531.html

[asthmaticeog]

1. Had to roll my eyes at that crack about exit polls.

Still, in its way, it's interesting to have Satan as a columnist. Puts mere demons like Novak in perspective.

I can't wait for the day that the world is done using white wine as a signifier of, well, anything. God, it's boring already.

[Kansas Wyatt]

14. 'Cover your ass' comment from the turd himself.

[robbedvoter]

2. Murdoch paper, Blossom Turd's "mind" - why is this even here? Again!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4017722

Could we draw the line somewhere? Please?

[ellenfl]

12. know your enemy. sticking our heads in the sand is what got

us into this mess we're in.

i think the repugs are going to discredit the exit polls so when they disagree with the results (e.g. a repug win) in november, we will have no way of discerning the truth. :tinfoilhat: they're up to new and old tricks.

i believe that hill has made a compact with the devil and that jeb will be our next pretzeldent after hill's 8 years . . . especially when she chooses him as her vp . . . to 'heal' us, of course. :tinfoilhat:

ellen fl

[fasttense]

3. Why would anyone listen to what this criminal has to say? n/t

[Gman]

4. Rove does a pretty good overall assessment of NH

and what the campaigns need to do going into Super Tuesday. I think Rove is pretty much right on the money here. This is pretty basic stuff, though. No rocket science here.

Like him or not, Rove is a mastermind.

[gaiilonfong]

5. If this article poo-pooing exit polls by Rover

Doesn't make ANY progressive, stand up and take notice, that sumthin is up,
well nothing will.

[BridgeTheGap]

6. "polling a primary election (is) like reading chicken entrails..."

Does this mean Rove will "spill his guts?"

[Nickster]

7. Wait a minute, I thought we were the elitist snobs. Now Rover says that there are more beer drinkers

than wine swillers in the Democratic Party? I'm so confused by his mastery of stereotypes.

[Fleshdancer]

10. What happened to the latte drinking, sushi eating, volvo driving Democrats meme?

Did the Bush economy turn us into beer drinkers instead? :shrug:

Rove is still an idiot.

[Meldread]

8. Well... we now know who Rove wants to win! Nothing but a Clinton/Rove hit piece.

Unless Karl Rove was just hired to join the Clinton Campaign, it's scary to think that he's doing an attack piece on Obama while praising the Clinton's. Yeah, we know who he is afraid of and who he wants to win.

[formerrepuke]

9. ..."ugly, smelly, and not very enlightening." He describes what he knows best.

[Orsino]

11. Rove paints the Republican-lite candidate as the populist...

...and the populist as the elitist. Typical GOP recto-cranial inversion.

[Strawman]

13. Bill probably wants to hire him

Just like Dick Morris.

[Johonny]

15. would call for the pollsters to be killed first, not the lawyers.

Can't they kill people that fix elections first so their worthless opinions won't be circulated anymore?