Unknown Guy Matches Guilliani and Thompson, Bests Rest of Field in 'Blind Bio' Poll...
By Brad Friedman on 10/5/2007, 4:09pm PT  

This is interesting. In a "blind bio poll" of Republican voters, conducted by Zogby, Ward Casscells polled as well as both Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson.

Who the hell is Ward Casscells? Some guy who's not even running for anything. But apparently Republican respondents liked his bio as much as they like Rudy, Fred, and all the rest, according to a new Zogby poll out today...

A Zogby International "blind bio" poll shows that renowned cardiologist Ward Casscells, a longtime conservative now serving as the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, is preferred by about as many Republican voters nationwide as Republican frontrunners Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson.

When likely voting respondents were given brief biographical descriptions of the top GOP candidates, along with the biography of Casscells, Giulani and Thompson each won 19% support, while Casscells won 18%. Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, won 13% support, while Arizona Sen. John McCain won 11% and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won 10%.

The survey, conducted Sept. 6-10, 2007, included 299 likely GOP voters nationwide, and carries a margin of error of 5.8 percentage points.

In a blind bio poll, the names of the candidates are not used, but are replaced with brief descriptions of each candidate's biographies.

The bios offered on each candidate, and more details on the poll are here.

John Zogby posits that the reason for the great success of Casscells, who has no intention of running for President, but has a well-described medical background in his bio, may reflect "a developing trend in recent months...[as] health care is becoming a major issue in the race for President."

Perhaps. Though, while we're no John Zogby, nor are we Peter Parker, our Spidey-sense tells us the results may as well reflect a "none of the above" vote from a so-far very unsatisfied Republican electorate.

Last July, an amusing AP-Ipsos poll showed "None of the Above" beating all of the top-tier GOP candidates, prompting Dems to launch an ImWithNoneOfTheAbove.com campaign in Iowa.

As hard-right "Social Conservatives" have signaled their intention of late to put forward a third party candidate to keep Giuliani from winning the nomination, and as "The Savior" Thompson has turned out to be anything but, we'll have to throw in with the unsatisfieds for now: Ward Casscells for President!

P.S. We have an "assistant secretary of defense for health affairs"??? Who knew?

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Article Categories: Election 2008, RNC