[definitelynotaliberal]

All of us here are familiar with the inside baseball with respects to her decision to resign as governor.
You have more confidence in our co-nationals than I do and your demeanor towards them is more tolerant than mine. I'm unimpacted by what the average Joe in the street sees and how his view is different than mine. The average Joe in the street voted for a Biden ticket. Need I say more? The average Joe in the street believes John Kerry to be a war hero and an accomplished American. Color me unimpressed. If the occasion calls for a recitation of the facts, recite them I will because I know them. So, if it's posed to me to answer how she's going to handle it on a national level if she couldn't handle all of the flak she was getting in Alaska, I will have my ready response. It's going to be no challenge to me at all to rebut, refute and refudiate.

[Gen. Burkhalter]

Roughly a third of the electorate is staunchly conservative and votes GOP no matter. Roughly another third is staunchly liberal and always votes Democrat. But independents, untethered by political parties and skeptical of political institutions are basically nonideological and base their voting on the “man” not the “party”. They are sometimes moved by superficial factors-—how a candidate parts his hair——but are more often motivated by results and performance and the economy usually trumps all other issues.

In 2006 and 2008 the independents swung strongly towards the Democrats, disenchanted with the long wars and tanking economy. But in 2010 they came back strongly to the GOP and they will most likely stay with the GOP in 2012 as well assuming no major improvement or turnaround in the economy.