Comments on: Did McCain win the battle of the “bitch”? http://www.eyeon08.com/2007/11/16/did-mccain-win-the-battle-of-the-bitch/ Covering the 2008 election Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:34:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: Tom S http://www.eyeon08.com/2007/11/16/did-mccain-win-the-battle-of-the-bitch/#comment-37410 Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:32:17 +0000 http://www.eyeon08.com/2007/11/16/did-mccain-win-the-battle-of-the-bitch/#comment-37410 I'm not sure that general approval of McCain's failure to object to the bitch comment of his supporter (assuming it the case), and how McCain handled the entire matter, means that he "won." Whether McCain "wins" or not depends on whether votes will be changed in McCain's direction, either in the primary or in the general. My guess is that far more people (primarily female) will actually decide NOT to vote for McCain than will change votes TO McCain. The question is not so much whether 2/3 of the voters think that McCain handled the matter well, but whether 1% or 2% of voters will change votes from or to McCain as a result. Without a poll (and maybe even with a poll, since something like this is hard to measure) it is hard to tell whether McCain "wins", but my guess is that that something like this has a tendency to strongly put-off a small percentage of voters, thus losing McCain more votes than he gains by the general approval of how he handled the matter. I’m not sure that general approval of McCain’s failure to object to the bitch comment of his supporter (assuming it the case), and how McCain handled the entire matter, means that he “won.” Whether McCain “wins” or not depends on whether votes will be changed in McCain’s direction, either in the primary or in the general. My guess is that far more people (primarily female) will actually decide NOT to vote for McCain than will change votes TO McCain. The question is not so much whether 2/3 of the voters think that McCain handled the matter well, but whether 1% or 2% of voters will change votes from or to McCain as a result. Without a poll (and maybe even with a poll, since something like this is hard to measure) it is hard to tell whether McCain “wins”, but my guess is that that something like this has a tendency to strongly put-off a small percentage of voters, thus losing McCain more votes than he gains by the general approval of how he handled the matter.

]]>