Americans Are Hungry for What Obama’s Got

And that’s integrity. I blogged the other day about this Pew Research Center poll, which shows that Obama has gotten through the Wright controversy without any serious damage. That good news is in Section 1 of the poll report.

Now, I want to focus on Section 5 of the report, which measures “political values, traits and emotions” as they connect with voters’ views of the two Democratic candidates. There is some very good news in there for Obama that has largely escaped press notice:

Solid majorities of all Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters describe Clinton and Obama as inspiring, honest, down-to-earth, and patriotic. In addition, most say both candidates have made them feel hopeful and proud. But Democratic voters are considerably more likely to attribute positive traits to Obama than to Clinton, while negative traits are more often associated with Clinton.

About eight-in-ten Democratic voters say Barack Obama is down-to-earth (82%), inspiring (82%), and honest (80%). By comparison, about two-thirds see Hillary Clinton as inspiring (66%) and honest (65%) and slightly fewer say she is down-to-earth (62%). …

Even on patriotism, where Clinton edges Obama out at 86% positive for that quality, Obama still gets 78%.

Results do vary by gender and race:

… About two-thirds of Democratic and Democratic-leaning women (68%) say Clinton has made them feel proud. By contrast, just 42% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning men say the same. Women are also much more likely than men to say Clinton is inspiring (72% vs. 57%), honest (69% vs. 59%), and down-to-earth (69% vs. 51%), and to say that Clinton has made them feel hopeful (70% vs. 52%).

Similarly, African Americans and whites express significantly different opinions about Barack Obama. Fully 82% of black Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters say Obama has made them feel proud, but just over half of white Democrats (53%) express this view. And while overwhelming majorities of white Democratic voters say Obama is inspiring (80%) and down-to-earth (78%), and that he makes them feel hopeful (68%), even greater shares of blacks attribute these characteristics to Obama (92% inspiring, 92% down-to-earth, and 87% hopeful).

Clinton’s negative ratings are particularly high when it comes to voters’ perceptions of her sincerity and likability:

Most Democratic voters do not associate negative traits and emotions with either of their party’s candidates, but about three-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (29%) say the word phony describes Clinton, and about as many say she has made them feel uneasy (30%) and angry (32%). Moreover, fully 39% of democratic voters describe Clinton as hard to like. Fewer Democratic voters describe Barack Obama as phony (14%) or hard to like (13%), but larger minorities say he has made them feel angry (19%) and uneasy (25%). White Democratic voters are much more likely than blacks to say Obama has made them feel uneasy (29% vs. 7%).

We can debate the significance of these showings, but I really liked Kyle Moore’s take, which he shared with me in an e-mail:

This is essentially political capital at its rawest form. Obama has a surplus, and Hillary is already starting out with a deficit; I think the only number she is appreciably over fifty on is patriotism. This is really not good for her because the way her campaign is being run those traits are going to continue to slide outside of her favor.

Given that the two candidates have similar positions on many of the substantive issues, political capital is going to be a crucial factor.

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