Nomination At A Glance, December 14th

by: Chris Bowers

Fri Dec 14, 2007 at 15:05


Only twenty days before Iowa. Since Wednesday’s update, there has been a new Hotline Iowa poll, Research 2000 polls of Iowa, and New Hampshire, a CNN South Carolina poll, and Rasmussen polls of Republicans in Florida and New Hampshire. Pollster.com has also updated their national numbers for both Democrats and Republicans.

Democratic Nomination, At a Glance
All state polls included in the averages had the majority of their interviews conducted November 30th through December 13th. Only the most recent poll from each polling organization is included.
State Est. Date # Polls Clinton Obama Edwards Richardson Biden Kucinich Dodd
Net Avail Cash Sep 30 Q3 $32.2M $30.5M $23.4M $5.1M $0.8M $0.3M $2.4M
Iowa Jan 03 8 26.8% 27.4% 22.4% 8.4% 4.4% 1.3% 0.8%
New Hampshire Jan 08 8 32.1% 27.5% 15.9% 7.4% 2.8% 2.5% 0.6%
Nevada Jan 19 2 39.5% 22.0% 11.5% 4.5% 4.0% 3.0% 1.0%
South Carolina Jan 26 5 34.4% 32.2% 14.4% 1.5% 6.0% 1.0% 1.0%
Florida Jan 29 2 53.5% 20.5% 10.0% 1.0% 2.0% 1.0% 0.0%
National Feb 05 NA 43.3% 24.0% 12.0% 3.3% 3.4% 1.8% 1.0%

Republican Nomination, At a Glance
All state polls included in the averages had the majority of their interviews conducted November 30th through December 13th. Only the most recent poll from each polling organization is included
State Est. Date # Polls Huckabee Romney Giuliani McCain Thompson Paul
Net Avail Cash Sep 30 Q3 $0.6M $9.2M $11.4M -$0.1M $6.4M $5.4M
Iowa Jan 03 7 33.1% 22.5% 9.3% 5.9% 9.6% 5.3%
New Hampshire Jan 08 8 10.4% 31.9% 16.9% 18.0% 3.4% 5.8%
Michigan Jan 15 1 21.0% 20.0% 19.0% 8.0% 9.0% 7.0%
South Carolina Jan 19 5 24.4% 16.4% 15.0% 10.4% 16.8% 6.3%
Nevada Jan 19 2 20.0% 24.5% 21.0% 7.0% 7.0% 4.0%
Florida Jan 29 3 18.7% 16.7% 27.0% 8.7% 11.0% 4.0%
National Feb 05 NA 20.5% 15.0% 23.3% 12.8% 9.7% 4.3%

Commentary on the new numbers, including an explanation for why Clinton remains in front despite Obama leading in Iowa, and be found in the extended entry.
Chris Bowers :: Nomination At A Glance, December 14th
Democratic Commentary
With Iowa and New Hampshire both balanced on a knife’s edge, if either Clinton or Obama wins Iowa, then the caucuses simply must be the tipping point for the New Hampshire primary now. And if someone wins both Iowa and New Hampshire, it is very hard for me to see how s/he doesn’t go on to sweep the rest. So, unless Edwards wins Iowa, this looks like a one-state campaign. If Edwards does win Iowa, then it is anyone’s guess as to what happens. Will he get enough of a boost in New Hampshire to take that state, too? I give it about a 50% shot. Will he draw more from one of the two frontrunners in New Hampshire, leading to a victory for the other frontrunner? I’d give this a 50% shot, favoring the candidate who took second in Iowa. Will an Iowa and New Hampshire double for Edwards be enough to put him ahead nationally? I’d give him about a 60% shot on that front. Will the established media finally consider the campaign to be more than Clinton vs. Obama? Probably, at least in a partial sense.

Right now, I give Clinton roughly a 50% chance of winning the nomination, Obama roughly a 45% chance, and Edwards roughly a 5% chance. The rest of the field has less than a 1% chance right now. The reason I keep Clinton in front, even though Obama currently leads the Iowa averages, is that of four of the last eight Iowa polls show Clinton ahead, Newsweek shows a split between Clinton and Obama depending on which sample one looks at, one poll shows a tie, and only two polls, Strategic Vision and Research 2000, show Obama ahead. The key is that Clinton leads in more polls, but Obama leads by more in the polls where he leads. In other words, Obama leads according to the Iowa mean, while Clinton leads according to the Iowa median. I’ll keep Clinton in the overall lead until someone else leads in both. And yes, I am using the Edwards internal poll of Iowa in my averages, something that I intend to keep doing until December 19th. I also use the the Newsweek “all voters” Iowa sample, because 2004 results indicate we shouldn’t trust likely voter screens in Iowa.

Republican Commentary
Giuliani stays in third place because he leads Florida and nationally. McCain moves into fourth, ahead of Thompson, because there is now an outside chance that McCain could win New Hampshire. A Huckabee Iowa win could cause Romney’s New Hampshire support to collapse just enough for McCain to sneak in there. The Thompson campaign has really turned into a waste of everyone’s time.

The main show continues to by Huckabee vs. Romney. Huckabee looks solid to win Iowa with Romney in a clear second, while Romney looks solid to win New Hampshire with Huckabee in a clear second following his Iowa boost. Huckabee and Romney will then battle it out in Michigan, Nevada and South Carolina for the title. If you don’t believe in momentum, consider that Huckabee and Romney have already received Iowa and New Hampshire bounces nationally, moving up to second and third from fourth and fifth only a week ago. They are also both pre-surging in Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina and Florida.

Methodological Notes: The Nomination At A Glance formula is based on polling averages over the last two weeks. It projects the Iowa winner to gain 11.3% on the Iowa second place finisher in New Hampshire, and 18% on the Iowa third-place finisher (the second place finisher gains 6.7% on the third place finisher). It projects that a sweep of Iowa and New Hampshire will provide a 33% boost nationally. This is based on data provided by diarist fladem, and should be treated as estimates, rather than hard numbers.

Nomination At A Glance is updated when enough new polls warrant an update. This time, it took two days for enough polls to be released. Given the holiday season, I’m trying to figure out the best thing to do with the dates included in the polling averages. While I want to drop down to a one-week polling average soon, there might not be many polls released in the week before the Iowa caucus. I don’t want pre-Christmas polls in my final pre-Iowa averages, but the lack of polls might not offer me anyway around that. So, for now, I’ll stick with a two-week polling average, but keep an open mind and continue to ponder the problem.

Click here for previous nomination at a glance results. Candidates are listed from left to right according to how likely it currently appears each is to winning the nomination. Early state polls can be found here and here. Net available cash means cash on hand for the primaries minus debts owed by the campaigns (info here and here). The primary calendar, at long last, is finally set. National polls are substituted for the 20 states holding caucuses or primaries on February 5th, but that will change if even one organization begins conducting a daily tracking poll of only the February 5th states. Michigan is not included for Democrats because virtually all have withdrawn their names from the ballot.

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FYI on the latest Iowa poll (4.00 / 1)
by Research 2000 showing Obama 33, Edwards 24 and Clinton 24:

Chris Woods dug up the age breakdown of respondents and posted it at Bleeding Heartland:


  18-29: 96 respondents or 16% of those surveyed
  30-44: 186 respondents or 31% of those surveyed
  45-59: 179 respondents or 30% of those surveyed
  60+: 139 respondents or 23% of those surveyed

I believe that in 2004 two-thirds of caucus-goers were over 50.

It is absurd to imagine that 47 percent of caucus-goers will be under age 45, with only 23 percent over age 60.

That is flat-out impossible.

This poll in no way convinces me that Obama is leading in Iowa, even if his lead is allegedly outside the margin of error.

Join the Iowa progressive community at Bleeding Heartland.


Heart or head? (0.00 / 0)
I trust the RCP averages and they show him ahead albeit not by much. Pollster also has him leading in Iowa.

[ Parent ]
Which of the (0.00 / 0)
Republican candidate have taken, or plan to take, public financing?

My prediction: Edwards vs. McCain!

Typing this message was an exercise in painful lag. If I didn't have a crush on Chris, I'd swear off OL forever.


well, you can have chris, my crush is stoller (0.00 / 0)


For some reason, it seems that Obama has some pathological and deep-seated psychological need for Republicans to like him.  Seriously.  It's weird.

[ Parent ]
Two items (0.00 / 0)
Kos is reporting that Hillary's campaign is suddenly coming apart at the seams ("The Knives Are Coming Out at Camp Hillary", December 14).  In the spirit of "I told you so", he's saying that he had predicted her downfall months ago.  He's saying that her strategy was essentially to run as an incumbent and that it was not only inappropriate but that it failed.

The second factor, which has been dominating my thoughts on Iowa is that we have (or are told that we have) two campaign clocks.  It is not 20 days of normal campaigning but in fact nine days of normal campaigning more or less and eleven days of holiday shadow land.  My assumption is that whoever is in first place on Deember 23 will likely stay there. 

If there is a Hillary meltdown, it would seem unlikely that her support would go to Obama.  Edwards or a second tier candidate like Richardson would be the more likely beneficiary.

People have been saying all along that one of the big three would fade.  Maybe they will be right. 


hmmm (0.00 / 0)
My assumption is that whoever is in first place on December 23 will likely stay there.

The problem is, how do we really know who's in first?

If there is a Hillary meltdown, it would seem unlikely that her support would go to Obama.  Edwards or a second tier candidate like Richardson would be the more likely beneficiary.

I'd love for this to be true, but I don't necessarily think it is.

Join us at the Missouri community blog Show Me Progress!


[ Parent ]
Assumption (0.00 / 0)
The idea of a Christmas truce is widely accepted. But that will only apply if the campaigns can still reasonably believe that they're the ones in the lead. If not, there's more than enough riding on this for one of the campaigns to take the risk of trying to campaign over the holidays, hoping they'll encourage more to turn out than they alienate.

Note that I'm not saying there won't be some kind of Christmas truce - there obviously will be at least a lull, as fewer people will be following the coverage. But it probably won't come to a standstill.

Forgotten Countries - a foreign policy-focused blog


[ Parent ]
11-12 day weekend (0.00 / 0)
The campaign won't quit working--the candidate won't stop shaking hands and making speeches but the voters will be on a 11-12 day weekend--operating in weekend mode--they don't call it a Friday news dump for nothing.

[ Parent ]
True (0.00 / 0)
But desperate campaigns do desperate things. I'm not sure if any of them are that desperate (probably not right now, but they might be in a week, I'd guess) but if they were, there are options open to them.

One is to try to go beyond nuclear to break through the weekend phenomenon. That could backfire, even if anybody pays attention, but the holiday season might mean that only the slur, not the attacked is remembered.

I don't expect there to be any bombshells over the 'long weekend' (although I wouldn't be surprised if there are big oppo research dumps just beforehand, in the hope they'll percolate through the system whilst countering them is more difficult) but I don't think it's impossible.

Forgotten Countries - a foreign policy-focused blog


[ Parent ]
Huckabee may have peaked too soon (0.00 / 0)
And I think that even if he wins Iowa, it will not be by much. I still think Romney is the favorite to win the nomination; Republican primaries are different from the Democratic ones in that the winner of Iowa are often different from the winner of New Hampshire one. In addition, thanks to his father's recognition in Michigan as well as the mormon population of Nevada, Romney should be well positioned in these places. In South Carolina, Romney is doing remarkably well considering his lack of Southern Roots, and while I don't think he'll probably win the state, he'll likely have enough under his belt to compete super tuesday.

I don't see how Guiliani's plan on relying on Florida for victory will work, he has to win in New Hampshire, which looks very unlikely at this point. With McCain, it's a good possibility in New Hampshire, but only if Romney cracks enough while Huckabee doesn't catch on for #1. For Republican nomination I give: 50% Romney, 35% Huckabee, 10% McCain, 5% everyone else.


"Obama leads by more in the polls where he leads"??? (0.00 / 0)
The key is that Clinton leads in more polls, but Obama leads by more in the polls where he leads.

Did you mean to write this?

Considering that...

Iowa = Obama + .6
New Hampshire  = Clinton + 4.6
Nevada = Clinton + 17.5
South Carolina = Clinton + 2.2
Florida = Clinton + 33
National = Clinton + 19.3


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