Biggest Fall Off Is From Midwestern Independents

[BabsSong]

Just heard Candy Crowley on CNN shove a litte something in a repuke's face. Repuke was happy with the new NYTimes/CNN poll. Then Crowley said to him: we have data from a recent poll that show the dissatisfaction with the direction this country is going in is coming from primarily independent Midwestern voters---that must be worrisome to you people!!!

Well now we know who to target because this whole puppy is going to be played out in just those states.

[lancdem]

1. I assume you mean the CBS/N.Y. Times poll

with Bush leading Kerry by 3?

[BabsSong]

2. lance---she talked about another poll while the guy was basking in

the one you just mentioned. And I hate to break something to you 'cause just found out during this same segment. That was without Nader in the picture. With Nader in, Bush stays at 46%, Kerry drops to 38% and Ralphie gets 7%. I don't like it.

[cmayer]

3. This is a big question about Nader.

Where is he going to be on the ballot? If it isn't in battlegroung states, it won't make a difference.

[BabsSong]

6. cmayer--that's the million dollar question and I bet his litte republican

friends will make damn sure he gets on the midwest ballots. However, I don't think Nader is exactly a big deal in the midwest. Lived there for years and years and I think he seems one of those damn, really liberal, non-Christian type of people who probably needs a bath---know what I mean???

[maxsolomon]

4. nader @ 7%?

i simply refuse to believe that. i know NO ONE who supports him, and i'm in SEATTLE.

[Bandit]

8. Didn't you know Democrats love him so much he is getting three times

the support now that he got in 2000.:crazy: They must think we are extremely stupid. Who knows maybe we are. America as a whole certainly is being represented that way to the rest of the world. Look who is our leader. Nader 7% what a joke.

[IrateCitizen]

5. Some of us "progressives" have noticed this for some time...

Remember, the origins of the socialist and populist movements of the late 19th century in this country were not in NYC or SF -- but in the Midwest. What the Democratic Party has written off as Republican strongholds used to be a hotbed of radicalism and birthplace to people like Eugene Debs.

Some of us still have realized that. The problem is that the Democratic Party hasn't given these areas any real reason to vote for them in quite some time. With the abandonment of populist progressive economic policies that empowered blue collar workers and family farmers in exchange for a bipartisan embrace of market fundamentalism -- coupled with the cobbling together of hot-button social issues as some kind of incoherent vision it its place -- the Democratic Party has lost this constituency.

It is STILL there for the taking. The question is, will the Party be shrewd enough to actually get out among these people on the ground in order to listen to and address their concerns, and will they be bold enough to depart from the "market uber alles" policies that have invited the equivalent of economic armageddon on many of these people and their communities?

[BabsSong]

7. Irate--I agree and the window of opportunity is closing fast

This was the land of U of Wisconsin (a flaming wall of protest in Nam) AND it's the land where there used to be so very many excellent paying assembly line jobs that have disappeared. This didn't all go away overnight. It's gone away steadily year after year. It's hard to get the Union juices flowing when so many haven't seen those kind of jobs for decades. It's becoming a unknown concept. The family farms in like 15 years got gobbled by corporate farms. What I'm trying to say is it's not like we're going there to preach to the choir because the choir was disbanded years ago. We have very few choir memebers left. We have to get a choir together again and if we don't do it this time; mark my word, we will never, never again!!!