Liberal activists: Obama, Edwards best to lead U.S. out of Iraq

From the Associated Press:

Barack Obama and John Edwards are the Democratic presidential candidates who offer the best hope for leading the country out of Iraq, according to an unscientific straw vote of liberal activists.

Obama, an Illinois senator, got 28 percent of the 42,882 votes from MoveOn.org's 3.2 million members in an online survey. He closely edged out Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and the 2004 vice presidential nominee, with 25 percent.

The vote was conducted after MoveOn.org's virtual candidate forum Tuesday night in which seven of the eight Democratic candidates answered questions about Iraq and had their answers aired online and on Air America Radio.

The straw vote cannot be considered representative of all of MoveOn.org's membership because participants weren't selected randomly.

Of those who listened to the responses at MoveOn.org parties across the country, Edwards was the favorite with 25 percent of the vote, followed by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson with 21 percent. Obama came in third at 19 percent.

Front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York did not fair well among the left wing of her party, with just 11 percent support overall.