US elections 2008

Democrats happy with long battle, pollster says

Article published on the 2008-04-29 Latest update 2008-10-21 13:04 TU

The Democratic Party fight for the presidential nomination went on until early June. Washington Post pollster, Jon Cohen, believes that the Democratic rank and file were happy with the long process and wanted it to take its natural course, so that the voters could decide.

Although Democrat leaders wanted a nominee sooner rather than later, Cohen said polls showed that the voters were happy with the process.

"One of the things we saw all year, throughout the campaign, or at least through 07, was how fired up Democratic voters were," Cohen said. "They were much more satisfied with their choices.  They ... turned out in record numbers almost across the board."

As the campaign wore on, however, polls showed Democratic voters becoming impatient with what they began to see as an acrimonious fight.

"What we also see is a growing dissatisfaction.... Each candidate's supporters said they would not be happy if the other one were the nominee and you start to see some seeds of dissatisfaction and potentially Democrats defecting from the eventual nominee, if they are not satisfied with the outcome," Cohen said.

All in all, Democrats polled felt the process should play itself out. 

"Democratic voters really seem content to let it continue.  Only a third say that it was probably hurting the party's chances in the fall."