Does your disdain for Clinton prevent you from voting Democratic? How far does your contempt for the Senator travel? Does it extend all the way down to municipal elections so that you won't vote for any Democratic candidate if they support Clinton?
At the risk of sounding like the togetherness police -- I am very close to San Francisco after all -- I've read a bunch of diaries that profess their writer's loathing of Clinton and a few others that question how well
Obama and Edwards will do in the primary. However, a question that is rarely asked in the comments (perhaps because it may be too obvious for others, but not very obvious to me) is whether or not this anti-candidate feeling actually filters down to lower ticket races, such as state legislature or municipality races or other federal races, or if it just stays at the top.
Before I start getting hacked on all sides for being flip-floppy or for not being courageous enough to take stand one way or another (after all the California primary isn't until February 5th so I can still listen to my choices until then) I'll say that I haven't made up my mind one way or another or a third. But as I have been a long-time Democrat, I can feel the nerves coming already... what will those pesky Republicans do? Being a Democrat who started supporting his party in the early 1990's you learn to look over your shoulder I guess.
If you have already decided on a primary candidate, will this affect your choices for other elective offices? I've read rants and raves and venomous diaries where the writer reveals their contempt (usually for Clinton II, but sometimes for Clinton I) but never mentions any candidates at lower offices, even though many of these writers profess a disappointment and anger at the Democratic Party... so much so that some have decided to leave or not vote at all. I feel frustrated too but if ordinary people can have any influence at all in the political arena, I'm sure it's easier to influence your party from within your party instead of as an Independent.
I think that Democrats always need all the help they can get. For me, the Democratic Party stands for tolerance and all-inclusiveness, which of course opens us up to attacks from a Republican Party that is all
but homogeneous in its make-up, and soon, in it's confinement to The South in terms of regional power. Many people have strong feelings about the candidates already but if the candidate you despise or if the candidate you only didn't support is nominated, will you spurn the whole Democratic Party? That is to say, will you vote a certain way for the presidential race and another way for lower-ticket races? Because Clinton is a huge target on this blog, however fair or unfair that may be, I'll only poll her with my assumption that Obama or Edwards being nominated makes my primary question a bit clearer... which is saying something in itself, but whatever. The bottom line is, I think we need everyone to participate next year and its troubling that many have been turned off my Clinton. I'm curious to know the extent how much people are turned off. I didn't include governors, who along with state legislators can play a crucial role in redistricting, but that's for another poll. And again, I'll assume that if you support Obama or Edwards, then you will support your down-ticket nominees as well.
Thanks for taking the poll. Hopefully you'll all find at least some Democratic candidates behind whom you can throw your support in your own districts. And if not, hopefully you'll find a reason to come back to the party. Probably Mukasey's nomination, and the inability to pass S-CHIP, and the near-capitulation on wiretapping won't be examples of reasons to come back, but perhaps there will be new ones in 2009.