Posted on 10/21/2004 7:33:51 AM PDT by OESY
...There are really two presidential campaigns going on this year. There's the battle over the epic issues of the day -- of who can better defend the nation, who can better address middle-class worries -- played out in the debates, the candidates' major addresses, the nationally publicized advertisements, and the network evening news broadcasts. Then there's the campaign percolating just beneath the surface, over a welter of narrower issues.
...Those questions matter intensely to certain groups of voters. They have extra potency because this election, like the one in 2000, could be decided by a handful of electoral votes.... These states are scattered around the country, including Ohio and Pennsylvania in the North; Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin in the Midwest; Florida in the South; and Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico in the West.
...The issues affect a specific contested state: milk subsidies in Wisconsin, nuclear-waste storage in Nevada, methamphetamine abuse in Iowa, new restrictions on travel to Cuba in Florida, silvery minnow protections in New Mexico.
Other questions motivate a bloc of voters spread across multiple swing states, such as the same-sex marriage issue for Christian evangelicals, and the Second Amendment for hunters. Those hot-button topics tend to favor Republicans, but Democrats have found one they think works to their advantage this year: highlighting allegations of voting-rights violations against African-Americans, in hopes of spurring larger turnout among the largely Democratic voters. The Media Fund, a group set up to produce pro-Democratic advertising, placed full-page ads this week in African-American newspapers in eight swing states with the headline, "One million black votes didn't count in the 2000 presidential election."
Here's how certain issues getting little hearing at the national level could affect the national outcome:
* yucca nountain...
* minnows and miners...
* social issues...
* gun rights....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are looking for focused issues that could tip battleground states to their side.
State (Electoral votes) Issue 2000 vote
Florida (27) Offshore drilling Bush
Wisconsin (10) Milk subsidies Gore
Iowa (7) Methamphetamine abuse Gore
Nevada (5) Nuclear-waste storage Bush
New Mexico (5) Silvery-minnow protections Gore
Michigan (17),
Ohio (20),
Oregon (7) Same-sex marriage ban Gore, Bush, Gore
Source: WSJ research
DemonRATS might like to think that Yucca Mountain is going to give Nevada to Kerry, but prior polls have shown that UNLESS IT'S LISTED BY THE POLLSTER, Yucca Mountain doesn't even make it in the top 10 issues.
LV was severely hurt by 9/11. Lots of people were laid off. Most of us CANNOT afford another attack. I've talked to a lot of people at the casino where I work, and they are ALL voting for Bush - for security/terrorism reasons.
YEEEAARRGH! (John Dean-type scream!)
The Second Amendment is as much about hunting as the First Amendment is about fraternity parties!
Lemme quote it for you:
"A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.
There's nothing there about "hunting" - just the clear and unambiguous "...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."
George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent
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