WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans alike have strong opinions about who has the best chance of capturing the presidency in 2008 — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, that is — but that’s not necessarily the candidate they’d rather go bowling with, take along on a family vacation or even vote for.
An in-depth survey of more than 2,000 people offers a window into the thinking of Americans as they look far beyond electability in making their choices for president — grappling with matters of personality, policy and religion in sorting through the candidates.
The interplay of the personal and the political doesn’t always make for neat and tidy decisionmaking.
Take self-described die-hard Republican Donald Stokes, 48. The steelworker from Waterbury, Conn., would pick Democrat John Edwards if he could take a candidate along on his family vacation. He likes Edwards’ personality and his family values. But he supports Giuliani for president.
“I’d rather have a president that’s going to get in somebody’s face if he’s got a problem with them or another country,” Stokes says.
Charolette Thompson, a 48-year-old retired landscaper from Federal Way, Wash., is a Democrat backing Barack Obama for president. But she would pick Republican Mitt Romney for a bowling partner.
Jasmine Zoschak, 30, a physician’s assistant from Milford, Pa., would love to see a woman in the White House — “just not the female that’s running this year.” She’s backing Republican Mike Huckabee.
Hold a sheer popularity contest, pitting the most likable Democrat against the best-liked Republican, and it would be Obama over Giuliani, 54 percent to 46 percent.
Ask which qualities are most important, though, and voters put likability well down the list. They attach far more importance to being honest, ethical, decisive and strong.
Clinton is the Democrat most often seen as strong, experienced, decisive, compassionate. The picture is less clear-cut when it comes to ethics and honesty, where Clinton and Obama run about even.
When GOP voters size up their candidates, Giuliani is most often seen as decisive, strong and compassionate.
But, just as for Clinton, ethics and honesty are a potential soft spot. Fifty-nine percent of GOP voters see Sen. John McCain as ethical, compared with 54 percent for Giuliani, 45 percent for Fred Thompson and 42 percent for Romney.
The survey of 2,230 adults (including 1,049 Democrats and 827 Republicans) was conducted Nov. 2-12 by Knowledge Networks and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. The error margin was 3.0 points for Democrats and 3.4 for Republicans.
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CONWAY, N.H. — Hot on the trail, Obama signs a fridge Barack Obama, presidential candidate and best-selling author, has signed plenty of campaign signs and books.
Tuesday, he signed a refrigerator.
Obama stopped by The Conway Daily Sun to sign what is affectionately known as “Refrigerator One,” a fridge that several of his rivals also have signed. The newspaper plans to sell it on eBay when the New Hampshire primary ends and donate the proceeds to charity.
Obama pulled a permanent marker from his coat pocket.
“I am always prepared,” he said. “You never know when you might need to have to sign a refrigerator.”
