African-Americans don't count. If there's nothing I learned this primary season it's that Hispanics, Women, and hard working, White Americans are the key electorate for Democrats. African-Americans are so 2004....

{Sorry I couldn't resist}

This sounds an awful lot like a framing issue.

Were the only choices favor, oppose and unsure? I'm guessing there are plenty of people who fall into the category: would rather not, but can live with it.

And most of those folks probably haven't really thought much about the Billy Carter effect of bringing the former president along...

There is really only one African American that matters and I don't think he wants her on the ticket.

Polls like these are still driven 90% by name recognition.

The majority of Americans, no offense to them, aren't engaged in politics enough to know what the hell they are talking about. They just go "oh, she was 2nd place, her as VP sounds fine", without considering the thousand reasons that would be a HORRIBLE choice.

Frankly I don't care what opinion polls say on this, because casual observers don't have the knowledge it takes to make decisions like this. I'm just amazed the majority of Americans actually picked the best candidate for a change. That itself is a small miracle.

I think it will be a very delicate dance for Obama for the time being.

He will be polling like crazy to see what match-ups make his candidacy stronger and I'm sure if he finds out Clinton adds value to his ticket he will be open to it - why undercut his entire promise of being above politics with petty personal revenge and ambition overriding everything else.

So, if the support for the unity ticket is so high and so broad, he will need to be very careful about refusing it without hurting himself.

- Picking another woman would enrage Clinton supporters because it will be throwing a bone
- Picking a conservative will undermine his message
- Picking a liberal will open him to attacks
- Picking a VP who doesn't add value to the ticket will be both a waste and a weakness for the candidacy

In the end, it will be hard for Clinton too.

I think she should decline if offered, to free his hands and pacify her supporters, if she can.

But by declining, she also exposes him to the risks outlined above.

I would imagine that a lot of people want her on the ticket because they believe, rightly or wrongly, that it increases his chances of winning.

Greg, when are you going to stop touting Clinton. Her reign is OVER. Its a new 'leader' in the house. As an African-American from one of the most respected and connected African-American political families in this country, such statement about us wanting Clinton is a JOKE. I love it when you guys keep claiming you know more about us than we do. Why do you keep pushing that woman. Clinton is so disrespectful to African-Americans and Barack, she nor her campaign has not even spoken to Barack or the campaign about her pulling out of the race. Shameful. The African-American families I have spoken to this morning are FURIOUS of this disrespectfulness and here you are saying half of us want her for VP. Unbelievable...truly, unbelievable.

Also for your information, Barack has said ALL, including Clinton both Mr. and Mrs. will have to be vetted. Bill Clinton said yesterday he will

This is a loaded question.

I don't strongly oppose a Clinton VP nod, if that's the strongest available ticket. I also don't strongly support a Clinton VP nod, either.

So if asked that question, I would probably answer "support". That doesn't mean I want it.

There's a difference between supporting it (i.e. you're OK with it) and wanting it (i.e. that is your first preference).

I'd like to see the wording of the question asked before I'd commit to AAs "wanting" Clinton on the ticket vs. "supporting" the ticket if Clinton is on it.

There are so many reasons this is a terrible idea, but for me #1 is Obama can't pick a VP who has said on a few occassions that he is not ready to be President and who has tacitly endorsed McCain over him.

Obama now has a VP vetting team; that buys time for this flurry of Clinton zealotry to abate. Polls taken two weeks to a month from now will reflect far different and saner responses. Let's have confidence in our nominee and in his inspired choice of Caroline Kennedy to be on the vetting committee.

It's going to be at least a month til Obama makes a decision on VP. I think most reasonable Hillary supporters will be through the "bargaining" stage of grief at that point.

Reality Check:

49% of Senator Clinton's own party do not want her on the ticket. That means that she is worthless to the ticket, and would be a major drag on it.

Dear Greg and Bob Johnson:

Why is 35% "barely a third," yet 45% rates a headline?? Don't these numbers only make sense if reported as a trend? How large was the sample? How large was the subsample of AAs? Also, if one were to collapse the "nos" and "undecideds," you would have a 55%-45% split among AA sampled (how many?). Were people asked to state their preferences for Clinton vs other possibilities?? If so, was the name recognition effect also measured??

As one African American (and I cannot speak for all), 45% percent is really not impressive considering where the Clintons stood among AAs a year ago...AND...

I suspect that "we" will get over Clinton not being the VP choice. Boy, will we get over it (not to speak for all of us). I do think we will manage (it might be difficult)to vote for Obama in November with someone else as VP.

Also: Greg and Bob Johnson:

I wonder if people would be better served by less Clinton-centric "reporting," since much of what will be coming out of her "camp," between now and July will have the SOLE purpose of building a VP case and keeping her in the news, while Senator Obama has made his intentions clear.

Finally: I also suspect that the cynical effort to ride the wave of outrage expressed by what I must believe are "fringe" Clinton supporters (you know, the ones who call Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)and leave bizarre messages) will reach the point of diminishing returns fairly quickly. I mean, really: Do you really want to make the argument that you should be VP because women who call Rep. Clyburn racist names will be angry and vote for McCain??

Not a compelling argument, I don't think...

Why do freckled people, like me, never get polled. If you cut us do we not bleed. Blacks, Browns and Whites, all get polled on their preferences, but never we the neglected and disenfranchised Freckled Community. It is time to start a Freckled Liberation Movement. Let me hear you lift your voices in protest my fellow Freckled outcasts. It is time for our day in the shade. Chant it loud and chant it proud:

Freckle Power; Spot On!. Freckle Power; Spot On!. Freckle Power; Spot On!

I'm sorry but this is just a crock of shit. Why aren't you reporting that the Obaman campaign has already said that Hillary as VP is highly unlikely?This from the WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121262109484746703.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news

Additionally,

Referring to a potential vice-presidential slot for Sen. Clinton, a senior Obama adviser says: "The more this gets vetted the less likely it becomes."

The man has barely had time to change his underwear and already people are trying to dictate what he should do in terms of Hillary. Give him and all of us a break. And she didn't even have the common decency to call him to let him know she was going to end her campaign--he found out through the media. And you're advocating VP for her! More insults and shamelessness. It's madness I say.

It's been pointe dout before, but I'll harp on it again. Since when is $60,001 "upper income"? In most places, it is solidly middle-class, though in some places like NYC, it would be lower middle class. It would only arguably be upper income in some rural areas of the South.

this poll clearly indicates that african americans deeply appreciate hillary's racially provocative comments, surrogates, and ploys.

Damn black racists are very much black and not so racists afterall- now can you poll and see if the good white folks of WV will vote for Obama now that Hillary is not the first choice?

puhleeze. this poll is NOT representative of most black folks; i don't know what they're smoking. or perhaps they're polling that urban hub known as appalachia.

as my mom like to say, hillary "gave us her ass to kiss." black folks haven't forgotten the racial references from both she and her husband -- AND that little thing about how shoddy a campaign she ran, which proved how wack she'd be as president. plus, even though she may not have been suggesting that her minions rush out and try to harm obama, that reference to bobby kennedy's murder in ANY context of waiting to "see what happens" during primary season -- not once, but several times -- gave folks a chance to peer into her subconscious mind. and no one liked what they saw.

of course, i can't speak for all black folk, but er, naw, don't believe this for a second.

As liam pointed out, 51% of dems wanting her on the ticket is actually a remarkably low number. If barely half of the dems want her as VP, just imagine how many fewer independents and crossover Republicans would be happy with her on the ticket.

I hope the leaders of the Democratic party pay close attention to the subset of white voters (22%) in the WVa primary that said race was important when casting a vote.

Now that subset may not be as large in CA/MA/NY as it is in NC/SC/TN but it will come into play in battleground states like FL, OH, and MI.

The Dems need this segment of white voters to come out and vote Democrat and not stay at home or vote for someone else.

These voters are Clinton supporters and may be Webb or Richardson supporters, but that fact is unknown.

I'd like to hear the strategy that negates this subset's affect in battleground states.

oh please, this poll is a sham. not one black person i know or correspond with online want her on the ticket. those looking to push hillary for vp are the corporate and global elites who were betting on her attaining the whitehouse so she can continue selling the u.s. out from under us. there is a lot of money from oil interests, monsanto, the big outsourcing interests (domestic and foreign) plus much more hoping to have a tool in power.

seriously, all the black americans i know have expressed concern for obama's safety were hillary vp. i don't blame them, as i feel the same.

Also Greg and Bob Johnson:

There is nothing in the data to support the wording "almost 1/2 of AAs 'want' Clinton on the ticket."

w/out seeing the actual survey, I suspect the question was an attempt to measure something like "would it be OK," which is really not even a preference, since the only way to measure "preference" is to give people choices.

The more I think about this, the madder I get. I really do think that the 2 of you (Greg and Bob), in the interest of honest and journalism with some SHRED of integrity, should rewrite this posting.

Just stop it. We have just suffered through 6 months of "shadings" of meanings (much less the entire decade of the 90s with the Clintons lying). Can we just for a minute get a break for them???

aren't you the folks that said we as african american would never vote for her. as i told you before you obama folks pushed racism not the voters. this poll should make all of you who stated african americans would never vote for clinton to take a look in the mirror and think about the roll you played in destroying her candicacy. she screwed up i agree but your part in the destruction of her candidacy will never be forgotten...and for many forgiven.

yes and that small amount of hilliary voters left over who refuse to vote for obama may give mccain plenty of padding to walk into the white house. and spare me that i am voting against my own interest. i am a moderate and i can appreciate policy from BOTH sides of the poltical table. personally, i am a strong believer of divided government. with a predominantly democtartic senate and congress i know mccain will have a short leash. hilliary was a moderate. more my preference.

BTW I was very heartened that ~50% of AAs didn't buy the racist crap thrown at Hillary.

Hillary supporters would have insisted on Obama as VP and by and large we hate him.

Its about respect for the other half of the party.

Oh and one last thing

The 12% number is base on most Clinton voters not yet realizing that Obama could be so reckless as to not put Hillary on the ticket.

When he announces his VP and its not Hillary expect him to have ~20% of her voters voting McCain and another 20% not voting. So taking Dem voters at 34% and Hillary loyalists at 50% of them.

So if it would have been 50% to 50% with say 100 million voters then it would move to 43.2 mill D and 53.4 mill R

Thats 55% McCain 45% Obama if it started 50% anyone familiar with politics knows that spells defeat.

I live in Atlanta. I was listening to Black radio (AM station) yesterday and was struck by the number of people were saying that the only way Obama could be elected was to bring Hillary on to the ticket. It's amazing that Black people don't have faith in the brilliance of this man that they think they need to advise him on what he should do, so much so that Bob Johnson (who cares about him?) is trying to convince the Congressional Black Caucus into pressuring Obama into naming Hillary as his VP. All of this is ridiculous, because Obama is smart enough to make his own decisions. He's been doing it all along, without ridiculous input from talking heads who don't know what they're talking about. He's not listening to them anyway.

It's unfortunate that we, as Black people, don't have enough faith in one another to make good decisions. What I also think is at play, unfortunately, is that many are hatin' on the Black man.

So, is this the soft sell Greg?

The poll doesn't quite say what Greg thinks it says.
Yes, a bare majority of Democrats -- 51 per cent -- say they want Hillary on the ticket.
Forty-five per cent of African Americans (most of whom are Democrats) back her presence on the ticket.
If you extrapolate, far more white Democrats are open to an Obama-Clinton ticket than black Democrats.
But forget about what Democrats (of whatever color) want. What do "likely voters" (of whatever party) want?
Well, Rasmussen finds only 34 per cent want her as Obama's running mate. Women oppose her by almost the same percentage.
She also falls short of a majority among the hard-working, ill-paid, under-educated whites she made such a big deal about attracting.
To sum up: the barest majority of Democrats want her on the ticket; the rest of the country, not so much.