The Question of Clinton Supporters

A lot of the discussion surrounding the Palin pick is whether or not she will be able to pick up Clinton supporters (also seems to be the only real reason for McCain to have selected her). Many think that there will be at least a small percentage of people who will jump on the bandwagon for the sole reason of Palin being a woman; however, others have given the voters a little more credit than that. Palin is certainly no substitute for Clinton if voters truly believed in what Clinton stood for on the issues.

A poll was conducted the two days following the Palin announcement that should give us some faith in the voters. Gallup seems to breeze over the fact that this poll was conducted post VP announcement and focuses more on the impact of the convention. However, I believe the results should still be comforting to Obama supporters. After the convention and the announcement of Palin, the percentage of Clinton supporters who said they were certain to vote for McCain went down by 4 percent and the number of Clinton supporters who said they were certain to vote for Obama went up by 18 percent.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/109957/Obama-Gains-Among-Former-Clinton-Supporters.aspx

I think this shows that when people really examine their beliefs, they realize that voting to make a statement is a mistake when it will come back to haunt them in the form of policy those voters do not support.