Remember that raucous rally up Boise back in February where Senator Obama wowed the crowd promising that he would remake the map in the West? A cartographer he ain’t. He isn’t even much of a good prognosticator because Idaho is worst showing so far. Obama trails Senator McCain by over two-to-one. McCain leads by a whopping 68% to 29% margin. That’s a 39 point differential. It’s actually closer in Alaska.
Don’t expect to see Barack Obama spending much time in the Republican stronghold of Idaho this fall. The Democratic presidential nominee trails John McCain by a staggering 68% to 29% in the first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Idaho voters.
McCain has the support of 96% of the state’s Republicans and 18% of Democrats. Obama is backed by 77% of Idaho Democrats and three percent (3%) of GOP voters. Unaffiliated voters give McCain the edge by a whopping 63% to 30%.
Thirty-seven percent (37%) have a Very Favorable opinion of the Republican nominee, while 43% have a Very Unfavorable view of Obama.
Those feelings extend toward the vice presidential candidates as well. Not only do 65% of Idaho voters think McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin was the right one, but 57% have a Very Favorable view of the Alaska governor. Fifteen percent (15%) see Palin in a Very Unfavorable light.
By contrast, only 28% think Obama made the right choice in picking Delaware Senator Joseph Biden as his running mate. While 18% say their opinion of Biden is Very Favorable, nearly twice as many (33%) say they have a Very Unfavorable view of him.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it’s in the news, it’s in our polls.)
Eighty percent (80%) believe Palin is at least somewhat conservative, including 48% who say she is Very Conservative. Fifty-seven percent (57%) believe Biden is at least somewhat liberal, with 31% saying he is Very Liberal. Twenty-three percent (23%) think Biden is a moderate.
Idaho has been won by the GOP presidential candidate in every election since 1964, when Lyndon B. Johnson barely carried the state over Barry Goldwater. President Bush won Idaho in 2004 by 38 percentage points.
Idaho has four Electoral College votes. That rally in Boise is also where Obama promised not to take people’s guns away. That was before he went to San Francisco and told a crowd of billionaires behind closed doors that he would tighten laws on gun sales and ban certain types of automatic weapons. Idahoans might have just picked up on that discrepancy.
In the race to replace Senator Larry Craig, Republican Jim Risch leads by a wide margin over his Democratic opponent Larry LaRocco.
Republicans in Idaho appear to have safely weathered the Larry Craig scandal, with the GOP candidate for his seat in the Senate ahead nearly two-to-one over his Democratic opponent.
Jim Risch, Idaho’s current lieutenant governor, leads Larry LaRocco, a former congressman, 58% to 30% in the first Rasmussen Reports survey of voters in the state. Risch served briefly as governor in 2006 after the elected chief executive was appointed to President Bush’s Cabinet.