Posted on 11/10/2006 9:27:34 PM PST by jamese777
In an election that proved to be a referendum on Bush and Iraq, political independents cast the deciding votes
The political center forcefully asserted itself in Tuesday's midterms. The national exit poll showed that political independents, who divided their votes evenly between George Bush and John Kerry in 2004, swung decisively in favor of the Democrats. With roughly nine-in-ten Republicans and Democrats casting ballots for representatives of their parties, just as they did two years ago, the Democrats' 57%-39% advantage among independents proved crucial.
As expected, the election turned out in large measure to be a referendum on President Bush and the war in Iraq -- bad news for Republicans. About six-in-ten voters (59%) said they were either dissatisfied (30%) or angry (29%) with the president. By more than two-to-one, those dissatisfied with Bush supported the Democratic candidate in their district (69%-29%); among those angry with the president the margin was more than fifteen-to-one (92%-6%).
Bush was much more of a drag on his party's candidates than was former President Clinton in 1994, the year that Republicans won control of Congress. More than a third (36%) of the electorate said they voted to oppose Bush; that compares with 27% who voted to oppose Clinton in 1994, and 21% in 1998, the year Congress impeached the president.
(Excerpt) Read more at pewresearch.org ...
IMO, Bush and the GOP leadership pretty much ended the "Reagan Democrats" 20 years of voting for Republicans.
Let's see if these moderate/conservative Democrats truly do vote this way on all of the issues starting next year!
Yes, ignore the independents at your peril.
"The political center forcefully asserted itself in Tuesday's midterms. The national exit poll showed that political independents, who divided their votes evenly between George Bush and John Kerry in 2004, swung decisively in favor of the Democrats. With roughly nine-in-ten Republicans and Democrats casting ballots for representatives of their parties, just as they did two years ago, the Democrats' 57%-39% advantage among independents proved crucial."
Arnold had the message to Republicans, to pay attention to independents.
Schwarzenegger Implores GOP To Follow Script of His Sequel: Court the Center
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1736725/posts
"The political center." People who sway with the breeze. No convictions.
I dunno. A large part of the losses in the House, specifically the Republican massacre in the North East, is explained by the country club set jumping ship due to social liberalism and Iraq.
Title should be, "Democrats Run AWAY from Liberal Candidates"
Either go in with massive, overwhelming, crushing force, be ruthless and end all opposition in a few weeks or don't go.
You mean Shock & Awe? We did that..
The democrats idea of "centralists" are Pelosi, Hitlery, Kennedy. Kerry, Obama, Boxer, Baghdad Jim Mcdermott, Cantwell, Feinstein, Reid, and Rangel.
God help the US till the next elections.
I don't think that is the case. They played a role but we must not forget that there has not been a President in recent memory that has been hated and targeted the way the liberal media has President Bush. I still believe that he is responsible for not standing up to them and calling them to the floor when they labeled our soldiers "nazis" and painted the whole military with the abu graib scandal just to win political points. He is also responsible for not understanding the seriousness of the illegal immigration problem. The biggest mistake was not really taking credit for anything till the last weeks before the election.
Republicans have deserved to lose for sometime but the Democrats did not deserve to win. The difference is that when we spoke he listened on Harriet Myers, he listened on Dubai Ports, and he listened somewhat on the Border Fence.
Now we have a group in there that will not listen. Just wait till Justice Stevens retires. There will be some fireworks then.
You've now identified the issue......now what's the solution.
BTW Welcome to FR... :\
"The political center forcefully asserted itself in Tuesday's midterms."
Road apples. The far right wing of the Republican Party is the political center.
That this statement seems unreasonable merely reflects the distance America has been dragged to the left.
You mean Shock & Awe? We did that..
Someone should ask the anti-war protestors: "Got math?"
30,000 US troops died in 3 years under Truman so that the Republic of South Korea could survive.
3,000 US troops died in 3 years under Bush, so that the Republic of Iraq could survive.
Ten times as many troops died under Truman as under Bush.
How long did it take to "win"? Not long, If you want to put a huge footprint in there, thats a lot more targets and would probably be a lot more dead.
What were the voters running away from when republicans lost mega numbers of seats during klinton's second term and Newt resigned?
It is IMHO a mistake to call the independent voters "centrists"...
If they were, why weren't they more enamored of Bush's moderate stances on so many issues?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.