2-to-1 majority of Democrats believes change is more important than experience.

As the battle for the Democratic nomination continues, a 64 percent to 30 percent majority of Democrats thinks it more important to elect a president who is a strong agent of change than one who has experience. This finding of a new Harris Poll helps to explain why Barack Obama is leading Hillary Clinton in most recent polls of Democrats.

Among Republicans an even larger 63 percent to 25 percent majority believes the opposite, that experience is more important than change. Independents – whose votes determine the results of most elections – tend to believe that being an agent of change trumps experience, by 51 percent to 37 percent.

These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,513 adults surveyed online between March 11 and 18, 2008 by Harris Interactive.

Other interesting findings in this poll include:

– White adults are more or less equally split between those who think change (43%) and experience (45%) are more important. African Americans on the other hand overwhelmingly choose change over experience (by 72% to 18%). Hispanics tend to think change is more important, but the margin is more modest (51% to 37%);

– The older people are the more likely they are to believe in the value of experience. Matures (aged 63 and over) favor experience over change by 52 percent to 40 percent. Echo-boomers (aged 18-31) favor change by 54 percent to 35 percent;

– Somewhat more people believe Obama (48%) would bring positive change if elected than believe that Clinton (42%) or McCain (43%) would do this. It is noteworthy that McCain’s numbers are so close to both Clinton’s and Obama’s – an indication that many people do not believe that a McCain presidency would be a continuation of the Bush administration;

– Most people want to see major changes in many areas of policy. The issues where the largest numbers of people would like to see major changes are the economy (74%), health care (71%), immigration (70%), and the war in Iraq (63%);
* In addition smaller majorities favor major changes in education (58%), taxes (57%), employment (54%) and the environment (52%).

So What?

These poll results illuminate the findings of polls that most people think the country is “on the wrong track” (see Harris Poll #18, for example). The fact that majorities want to see major changes in relation to so many issues explains why many people see the need for change as so important.

In the remaining Democratic primaries this desire for change clearly helps Senator Obama. However, in the general election the relative importance of experience and change is likely to be more evenly balanced.

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