A Shift To Change? Gallup Finds Dems In A Change Mood

All well and good for Obama. But is Hillary Clinton enough of a change agent?

In spite of Clinton's comfortable lead in nomination preference polls, a recent Gallup Panel survey finds that -- in theory, at least -- Democrats by a large margin attach more importance to a candidate who would bring about change than to one who has experience.

The Aug. 23-26 Gallup Panel survey posed the following questions to Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents:

Which will be more important to you when deciding which candidate to support for president in next year's election -- [ROTATED: that the candidate has experience getting things done in the current system in Washington, (or) that the candidate has a strong desire to change the system for getting things done in Washington]?

The results of this forced-choice question were lopsided in favor of "change" -- 73% of Democrats said changing the system would be more important to their decision about whom to support, while only 26% opted for "experience."