Data of voter reaction to two similar political ads 鈥� one featuring President Obama and the other former President Clinton 鈥� suggest that Clinton is the better motivator of the Democratic political base.
The ad with Obama, titled 鈥淭he Choice,鈥� featured the president making his case for re-election directly to the public. A was subsequently released with Clinton making roughly the same arguments. Both ads promote Obama in the November presidential race against Republican Mitt Romney.
鈥淧resident Obama has a plan to rebuild America from the ground up,鈥� Clinton says in his ad. 鈥淚t only works if there鈥檚 a strong middle class.鈥�
鈥淭he Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project did not find the ad that used Obama to be particularly effective, despite speculation in the press that it was an ad that played well with swing voters,鈥� said John Geer, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt and the leader of the Ad Rating Project.
The ad that used Bill Clinton seemed to resonate mostly with the Democratic Party base.
鈥淢ost of the strong reactions come not from Republican or swing voters, but among the base 鈥� self-identified Democrats,鈥� Geer said.
Both ads 鈥渄isgusted鈥� many Republican voters (66 percent for the ad featuring Obama, 64 percent for the ad featuring Clinton).
YouGov uses a representative sample of 600 Americans, with an over-sample of 200 independent voters, for the poll. Results and a link to both the Clinton- and Obama-narrated ads are posted on
The Clinton-narrated ad made those surveyed slightly happier (31 percent for Clinton compared to 26 percent for Obama) and more hopeful (25 percent to 20 percent) than the ad starring Obama, the survey found. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed found the Clinton-narrated ad to be memorable, versus 58 percent for the Obama-narrated ad.
鈥淐linton seemed to generate small upticks in turnout and willingness to support Obama,鈥� Geer said. 鈥淭he Clinton ad rallied the base a bit, something that Obama is less able to do at this stage of the campaign.鈥�
Seventy-eight percent of the Democrats polled who saw the ad featuring Clinton said they definitely planned to vote in the Nov. 4 election, versus 74 percent who saw the ad featuring Obama.