39. Do you think most people you know would vote for a presidential candidate who has ever used cocaine, or not?

Would Would not DK/NA
6/15-23/07 22 74 4

So this question isn’t about whether the INDIVIDUAL SURVEYED would vote for a candidate. It’s about their IMPRESSION of a majority of of the people they know would vote. So really this is a survey question about PERCEIVED MODAL ATTITUDES…not actual attitudes. People who think that most people would vote against such a candidate but themselves might support that candidate actually would answer YES to this question. Anyone who thinks that 50% or more of the population would be biased against such a candidate would answer yes.

And there is actually no ranking of this issue in a list of nested priorities at all. It may be that this is not a very important issue…and that other factors could cancel out that (e.g. years since it last occurred, the forthrightness of admission~ whether the individual was exposed or raised the issue themselves, age at when it occurred, etc.).

We should all remember that it wasn’t Clinton or the Clinton campaign that exposed Obama’s Cocaine Use. The person who “outed” Obama was Barrack Obama himself. I think that this is a positive action by Obama to reduce the impact the exposure by others would have on his campaigns. But he, and his staff, need to realize that it will be raised by the Republicans. They should be ready to point out all the mitigating factors I’ve mentioned above, in addition to the fact that he’s been clean for nearly thirty years.

If voters are so unforgiving about such things then it doesn’t matter who is involved in raising it as an issue again. But Obama has to hope that he can CHANGE attitudes, not just hide from them.

The way I read the question it would suggest to me CURRENT USE. Even I would vote against a present user.

A respected person in her campaign had to do it or else it would have been ignored.
I give Sheehan credit for taking the public hit to his reputation. He can bounce back with a White House appointment.

In a New York Times poll in June, 74 percent of respondents said they did not think most people they know would vote for a presidential candidate who has ever used cocaine.

“In the few polls that explicitly ask about cocaine use in a presidential candidate (as opposed to the softer more generic ‘Drug Use,’)” says one Washington, D.C. insider, “Seventy-four percent say cocaine use makes a person unfit to be president. It’s the highest negative apart from ‘no government experience.’ Put differently, never in the history of the presidency has a front runner openly admitted to using cocaine. So now that Obama is talking about the drug use more often, I am absolutely certain it’s because he and his team know that the cocaine issue is going to roar forward. It will be a major issue if he is the nominee.The GOP will ride it hard and he is trying to inoculate.”

Full article from Iowa paper on 12/6

Is this quote of Obama’s in The Stamford Advocate accurate?:

“The fact of the matter is, I know some in the party have differences with Joe. I’m going to go ahead and say it,” Obama told the 1,700-plus party members who gathered in a ballroom at the Connecticut Convention Center for the $175-per-head fundraiser.

“I am absolutely certain Connecticut is going to have the good sense to send Joe Lieberman back to the U.S. Senate so he can continue to serve on our behalf,” he said.

Obama received widespread attention for his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, delivered while he was still a state senator.

Lieberman became Obama’s mentor when Obama was sworn into the Senate in 2005. They stayed close at Thursday night’s event, too, entering the room together and working the crowd in tandem.

Despite the camaraderie between the two, the crowd was clearly more receptive to Obama’s remarks than Lieberman’s speech about party unity and the potential for Democratic victories at the ballot box this fall.

In fact, scattered boos greeted Lieberman when he took the podium, and he had to stop three times during his remarks to shush the crowd so he could deliver key points.

There must be a pic of Obama and Lieberman. Or at least a co-sponsored bill.