Swing to Obama among English language students

Obama has repeatedly topped online and offline polls, many of which we've profiled before. Some interesting new data comes from English, baby!, the most visited website for English language students with 750,000 members. It has run a series of polls related to the US Presidential elections. The first, in June 2007, gave Senator Clinton a 32% lead over the other candidates. However a second poll, in April 2008, showed a dramatic shift to Senator Obama, who finished 20% ahead after 4345 votes were cast. He is even further ahead in their third, and ongoing, poll: at the moment he leads at 61%, compared to 31% for Senator Clinton and 8% for John McCain. English, baby! co-founder, John Hayden explains: "It's been interesting to watch opinion change. The Clinton name has been very recognizable throughout the world but Obama's message seems to be taking hold." On the website's forums, individual members can be observed changing their opinions. Hakimi, a 32-year-old user from Yemen started a forum thread about Hillary Clinton. But last January, he was won over by Obama. "This morning I heard Barack Obama speaking about the results in New Hampshire...He has the potential to be an incredible leader that could do truly amazing things..." English, baby! aims to teach English in an innovative MTV-style, virtually immersing students in American culture and conversational English.