Some odd poll results
Pollster Kellyanne Conway observed this about the election:
In two self-identification questions, just 33% of actual voters said they considered themselves Republicans, but 41% thought of themselves as conservatives. On the other end of the spectrum, 39% aligned as Democrats, but just 20% described their ideological alignment as liberal. That number is unchanged from the 20% of actual voters in our 2004 Post-Election survey said they were liberal.
Something in these numbers appears to be out of whack. For example, in a poll last year, 34% of Democrats said that they personally did not want the surge to work, and, in 2005, fully 32% of Democrats said that the US is “discriminatory and unfair.” Only 20% of those polled called themselves liberal. Is personally not wanting the US military to succeed in the surge anything other than a liberal position? What’s going on?
November 6th, 2008 at 6:56 am
The labels are ever more meaningless. And the voters ever more ignorant.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Long Dead are Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett
Whatever the boomers touch – BOOM!! – govt. policies, corporations, professional sports, etc. – scandals break out to a degree that dishonor those who came before, cast doubt on their achievements or threaten to destroy all that Americans have built.
Obama is the US version of Canadian Jack Layton – promises would cost billions to implement. Biden is the US version of a parliamentarian backbencher.
Obama – Can you please tell me what Americans have in common or think what they have in common or what they find about this candidate or the democrat party so appealing? Because this is not the America I thought I knew – the gimmeegimmee culture so obvious in British, French and Canadian politics has infected the US.
Also – how can a government agency be allowed to contribute to politicians? Is it not supposed to be impartial? What have ( some of ) the boomers done to your country?
November 6th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Well, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and renew the Republican party. In Canada, we went through this 15 years ago. This is a grassroots task.
Clearly an overhaul is needed, and that is a good thing. I’m not saying the current Republican leadership is at fault. I’m saying times have changed. Perceptions have changed. Possibly values have changed, but I doubt it. I suspect values have been suspended in these difficult times as many looked for the easy way out.
Obama’s voter numbers are very low, given the resources (legal and illegal) thrown at this election. Clearly the PUMAs did not show up in force for McCain. Did they choose not to vote and Obama’s $600 million brought in replacement votes? Did they hold their nose and vote? If so, did Obama’s negative advertising drive away the 7 million Republican voters who had voted for George? Was the negative campaign that good or was the economic state of the union that bad? How will that heal the divide within the nation?
There will be lots of time to turn this around. Remember, using a baseball analogy, look to hit where they ain’t. Bag a few singles and work to renew the party. Changes will be made. Sarah will be prominent in all of this so expect the negative Obama machinery to maintain their press. Remember, over time, entropy will set in and his negative message will not resonant as well.
At what point will their “Blame George Bush” attack line play out? If after a year or two they are still at it, those who are not their core fanatic voters will start to become low hanging fruit.
He won. The election was rigged. You can cry about it or show some resolve and roll up your sleeves. See that it doesn’t happen again.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
The labels are incomplete, but not always meaningless. I’d describe myself as a limited government, fiscal conservative. I’m registered as a Republican, but McCain shares few of my values. Yes, I voted for him, with no enthusiasm whatsoever. I also had little use for my former Congressman, Jim Walsh, who was pretty much the prototypical RINO.
I don’t think it’s the government’s role to promote morality, so I have little in common with say, evangelical Christians. I’m no libertine, I believe much of what the evangelicals believe, I behave much as they do, but I don’t believe it is the government’s role to legislate morality.
Where you run into problems is with oxymorons like “compassionate conservative” or “neocon” or “liberal.” GWB was no conservative at all. He favored government solutions to problems that were either created or exacerbated by the government. Today’s liberals are nothing of the sort. They are big government authoritarians.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Well, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and renew the Republican party. In Canada, we went through this 15 years ago. This is a grassroots task.
Clearly an overhaul is needed, and that is a good thing. I’m not saying the current Republican leadership is at fault. I’m saying times have changed. Perceptions have changed. Possibly values have changed, but I doubt it. I suspect values have been suspended in these difficult times as many looked for the easy way out.
Obama’s voter numbers are low, given the resources (legal and illegal) thrown at this election. Clearly the PUMAs did not show up in force for McCain. Did they choose not to vote and Obama’s $600 million brought in replacement votes? Did they hold their nose and vote? If so, did Obama’s negative advertising drive away the 7 million Republican voters who had voted for George? Was the negative campaign that good or was the economic state of the union that bad? How will that heal the divide within the nation?
There will be lots of time to turn this around. Remember, using a baseball analogy, look to hit where they ain’t. Bag a few singles and work to renew the party. Changes will be made. Sarah will be prominent in all of this so expect the negative Obama machinery to maintain their press. Remember, over time, entropy will set in and his negative message will not resonant as well.
At what point will their “Blame George Bush” attack line play out? If after a year or two they are still at it, those who are not their core fanatic voters will start to become low hanging fruit.
He won. The election was rigged. You can cry about it or show some resolve and roll up your sleeves. See that it doesn’t happen again.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I pretty much agree with staghounds. My thinking is that people either don’t know what the labels mean or else they have a psychological reason for not wanting to describe themselves via a specific label.