Posted on 10/19/2004 10:26:36 AM PDT by WoodstockCat
Battlegrounders
IOWA: THE UNDECIDEDS [Brian Kennedy 10/19 11:28 AM]
How will the indecisive Iowan decide? When the swing voter in Iowa can't make up his or her mind, my experience is that they fall back on a sense of cultural affinity. Here the clear advantage goes to President Bush. Or maybe it's more apt to suggest the clear disadvantage goes to Kerry. As Des Moines Register political columnist David Yepsen offered this morning:
"Kerry has particular trouble connecting with rural voters. A survey conducted last month for the Center for Rural Strategies showed Bush leading with rural voters by 13 points. Religion, patriotism, gun issues and family values are all part of the disconnect. Bush's plain-speaking country image is more familiar to these voters than Kerry's reserved, Eastern one."
In a close election in Iowa, cultural affinity is the Bush-Cheney trump card.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
go hitch up the team, ma, let's us go vote for George.
1) Iowa is old; one of the oldest average ages in the nation, I think, so all the Social Security geezers who watch only CBS believe the DNC BS and worry about losing some of their casino fun-money.
2) Iowa has far more union manufacturing than most people think.
3) Farmers who pride themselves on self-sufficiency have all but disappeared. Farms are now generally multi-million dollar family-based corporations who farm federal subsidies (the latest rage is investing in ethanol plants to reap various kinds of government subsidies). Livestock has become almost exclusively a manufacturing-type environment, complete with third world workers.
4) Iowa is far less Bible-belt than most people believe.
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