Democratic Insiders List Their Preferences

An article in the Los Angeles Times says that Hilary Clinton is the favorite of Democratic party "insiders". The article must have been written by a Clinton supporter, because that is a very generous interpretation of what the numbers actually show.

The Times polled every member of each state's delegates to the Democratic National Committee. Since every delegate was polled, and not just a random survey, there is no margin of error in the poll. What did the poll of party insiders show? Here are the numbers:

No favorite...............30%
Clinton.....................20%
Edwards...................15%
Obama......................11%
Gore.........................10%
Richardson..............09%
Others......................05%

I don't read the above numbers as showing that Clinton is the favorite of party insiders. In fact, the poll clearly shows that 4 out of 5 party insiders do NOT support Clinton. The real leader in this poll is "no favorite".

The poll really shows that none of the so-called "big three" candidates (Clinton, Edwards and Obama) have been able to break out of the pack and become the clear leader. No candidate is anywhere near gathering majority support yet.

This has to be disappointing for the "big three", considering the campaigning they have done and the extensive media coverage they have received. This poll really contains good news for only one candidate - Bill Richardson.

A couple of months ago, most experts had Richardson pegged as a minor candidate with only 1-2% support. This poll puts him up near the big dogs with a strong 9% showing (only 2 points behind Obama and a scant 6 points behind Edwards).

And he has done this while being virtually ignored by the media. Just imagine what he might be able to do with equal media coverage!

It is still very early. We still have nearly a year to go before primary season arrives. I believe that by this Fall the media will be forced to admit that Richardson is a major candidate, and will have to give him the media coverage that he deserves. Then things could get really interesting.