Voters ready to elect a black or woman president - just maybe not these specific ones
Posted on July 7th, 2007 at 2:08 pm by Contributor ArchiveIn a completely unshocking Newsweek poll, US voters claim they are ready to elect a black or woman as president of the country. Such a poll is meaningless, however, as it is doubtful that most racist/sexist people would voluntarily put themselves in such a category, and it seems most people would feel compelled to say they would be able to vote for a qualified candidate regardless of sex or race. That said, I’m enough of an optimist to believe this country is enlightened enough to elect a candidate based on issues rather than bigotry.
The results of this question provide little insight into the 2008 presidential race. Just because someone says they wouldn’t not vote for a candidate based on sex/race, does not mean that person would vote for any black or female candidate that might run: The other extreme, Would you vote for a woman or black person because she is a woman or because he/she is black rather than for an otherwise better candidate? was not included in the poll.
Hooray for diversity! Yes, people are generally not scared to vote for a non-white non-male. This news should only be surprising at a backwoods Klan meeting. But before Republicans get too nervous about the electability of the Democratic frontrunners, the poll wasn’t asking about Hillary or Obama. In fact, 24% more people said they were willing to vote for a woman for president than said there was even a chance they would vote for Hillary. Similarly, 26% more would vote for a black person than specifically might vote for Obama.
So don’t get too excited, Hillary: 14% of people still would never vote for a woman for president, and close to 48% of the population don’t like you personally. Those numbers don’t add up favorably no matter how you spin them.
1 Comment
Leave a comment
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The fact is polls or surveys rely on self-report data. In other words the entire validity of the poll is based upon the premise that the respondents to the poll are telling you the truth. The more emotionally-charged a poll question(s) is, the higher the probability respondents will not give the poll-taker a truthfull response.
There is no more of an emotionally-loaded poll question that one can ask in the U.S. than questions based on race or gender: “Would you vote for a black person for President of the United States?” “Would you vote for a woman for President of the United States.”
The probability that if a person knows he or she would not vote for either for President, and will answer that question honestly to a poll-taker (even promised aninimity), is rather low to say the least. (You might be anonymous the thinking goes but they still have “my” phone number.)
Do I believe there are voters in the U.S who won’t vote for a candidate because he or she is black, or won’t vote for a woman for President solely based on her gender? Sadly, I do. Do I put any merit in surveys which attempt to quantify what percentage of voters in the U.S. fall into these two categories: Racist and gender-bias, as it pertains to voting–no. Why? For all the reasons–plus common horse sense–that I have outlined and explained above.