Over the past year, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have jostled for position as frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Expecting this to be the case back at the beginning of 2007, we introduced two bumper stickers giving people the chance to prioritize their support for Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as presidential candidates by showing support for one candidacy in 2008 and another in 2016:
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We’ve also given people the opportunity to pick one Democratic politician as a presidential candidate, and another as a vice presidential running-mate, for some time now. This presents another opportunity for people to prioritize Clinton and Obama in the context of one another:
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In what proportions do people place Senator Clinton in a more premium campaign spot in time or on a ticket? In what proportions do people give Senator Obama a higher priority when given a chance? The results from January of 2007 to today (for those people committed enough in their prioritization to buy bumper stickers proclaiming their preference) are:
Clinton-Obama 2008: 76.9%
Obama-Clinton 2008: 23.1%
Clinton 2008, Obama 2016: 89.5%
Obama 2008, Clinton 2016: 10.5%
It’s important to be careful in interpreting these figures. I don’t think they represent a giant preference for Clinton over Obama overall, as general data for Clinton and Obama in the year to date would seem to suggest otherwise. Rather, these numbers suggest how people who are vocal about the relationship between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama choose to voice their opinion. The ranks of those who have something to say about the relationship between Clinton and Obama are dominated by those who would like to see Hillary Clinton placed first in priority and Barack Obama placed second, either in time or in a presidential ticket. There just aren’t as many people out there who have an interest in seeing Barack Obama elected now and Hillary Clinton elected later, or seeing Hillary Clinton as a vice president to Barack Obama. In other words, I see evidence for the existence of a “first Clinton, then Obama” idea among Americans committed enough to buy a sticker, but only weak support for the “first Obama, then Clinton” converse.
If you had to prioritize the candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in relation to one another (not that you have to, of course, but just playing with the possibility), how would you do so? Or do you reject this pairing outright?
