NYT ed: Nascar's Swinging Voters (this year's 'soccer moms')

The New York Times ^ | 08/05/03 | editorial board

[Pokey78]

If you've got to have a gimmick in politics, Senator Bob Graham may have found the next big thing. Mr. Graham, one of a slew of Democrats running for president this year, has spent as much as $500,000 to help underwrite a souped-up Jack Roush pickup truck that has been screaming around some of Nascar's racetracks. After the Bob Graham Ford won a race in Kansas City, his campaign got thousands of dollars in free publicity as TV cameras followed the machine for a full victory lap.

Politicians nowadays are setting their sights on "Nascar dads," as opposed to the oh-so-yesterday "soccer moms." Political consultants have no end of ways to slice and dice the always desirable uncommitted voter. Last time, she was a waitress. This year, he's rooting for Jeff Gordon.

While the emergence of the "Nascar dad" might suggest that women have given up their position as queens of the gender gap, in fact the enormous Nascar audience itself has grown more female in recent years, as well as more middle class and less rural. The fans have a reputation for being fiercely independent, and there is nothing presidential candidates yearn for more fiercely than genuinely independent American voters — ready to swing one way or the other at the drop of an argument, or perhaps a well-timed political pitch. Democrats are speculating that stock car aficionados are the very people whose jobs are in jeopardy in the sluggish Bush economy and whose families have been placed at risk by the administration's military pursuits overseas.

So far, Mr. Graham has been working the Nascar crowd harder than other politicians. Right now, he's doing better at the speedway than in the polls.

[jagrmeister]

"Know thy enemy" - I buy that. However, look at people's responses here. If we were truly studying the enemy, we would be analyzing how biased this NYT article, rather than presuming it's true and responding to its contents. Take this gem at the end of the NYT propaganda: "Democrats are speculating that stock car aficionados are the very people whose jobs are in jeopardy in the sluggish Bush economy and whose families have been placed at risk by the administration's military pursuits overseas." If that isn't wishful thinking and pathetic liberal spin, I don't know what is. Yeah, I really think that they're going to be angry at Bush for his "military pursuits". The split on "Do you think we were right in going to Iraq" is 65-35 in recent polls and Nascar fans are likely at least at that level. I also like it how the NYT presumes that Bush's liberation of Iraq will place American families at risk. Read the last part of the sentence again, "....stock car aficionados are the very people....whose families have been placed at risk by the administration's military pursuits overseas." This kind of ridiculous suck-up to the DNC is why no one should take the NYT seriously.

[185JHP]

Bristol and Talladega would be good stops, too. NASCAR has the cleanest fans of any of the major sports.

[noutopia]

Just caught on to what you are saying. Swinging voters,my god all the swingers are Democrats

[razorback-bert]

I was refering to espn.