Pew Research: Hillary Clinton Is Tougher Than Rudy Giuliani

Posted by Myrna the Minx on September 23, 2007 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

The newest report from the Pew Research Center on presidential candidates has got to be driving Rudy Giuliani crazy because Hillary Clinton is associated with the word “tough” more often than he is. In other words, Rudy is being beaten by a girl! From the report summary:

As many as 67% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters say Clinton is the Democratic candidate who first comes to mind when they hear the word tough and more than half (52%) associate Clinton with the word smart. No other candidate – Democrat or Republican – comes close to Clinton in being linked with each of these traits.

Of course Obama is the warm and fuzzy candidate:

In fact, more Democratic voters associate the words optimistic, honest, energetic and down-to-earth with Obama than Clinton; larger percentages also associate the word friendly with both Obama and John Edwards than with Clinton.

It should be no surprise that Democrats are more enthusiastic about their party’s candidates than Republicans are about theirs, but what may trouble Republicans is how much more negatively Independents rated Republican candidates:

Majorities of independents rate both parties’ 2008 candidates negatively. However, significantly more independents say the GOP field is fair or poor than say the same about the Democratic candidates (69% vs. 54%). Only about one-in-five independents (21%) rate the Republican candidates as good or excellent; 37% of independents have a positive opinion of the Democratic candidates.

And if Gore endorsed a particular candidate, one in five Democrats would be influenced by his endorsement. Read the entire report summary and report here. And visit the Pew’s main site to see what other terrific research they have available including this one on the growing class society in the U.S. and how blogs are effecting online news content.