NEWS: "Independents Are Having Buyer's Remorse" (re: BUSH/CONGRESS)!

[Bluebear]

The Schiavo case has led many swing voters to turn their backs on the GOP

Business Week, July 18, 2005

Just nine months after giving George W. Bush the crucial swing votes he needed to best John Kerry, political independents are bolting out of the Republican Big Tent. Angered by GOP meddling in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case, reeling from record gasoline prices, and depressed by the escalating cycle of violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, unaligned voters are suddenly lining up with Democrats to give Bush the lowest ratings of his Presidency. The disenchantment extends beyond the White House to the GOP Congress: Only 31% of independents say Congress is in touch with their concerns, according to a June 14-15 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll....

For Republicans, an exodus of voters like Rego could have profound repercussions. Because 67% of independents think Bush will appoint a Supreme Court justice whose religious beliefs will inappropriately influence judicial rulings, according to Gallup, Dems may be emboldened to dig in for a long showdown....

The swing-voter stampede started after the extraordinary intervention by Bush and the GOP Congress in the Schiavo case. Now socially moderate independents -- who strongly favor expanded stem cell research and oppose overturning Roe v. Wade -- fear that the majority party is in thrall to the Religious Right. "These people lean more Republican because of fiscal issues, but they're much more liberal on social issues," says independent pollster Dick Bennett of American Research Group. "After Schiavo, they said, 'Wait a minute. We didn't buy in for that."'

Add to the toxic political mix sticker-shock at the gas pump and growing worries about post-Saddam Iraq. In an about-face, formerly hawkish indies now side with Democratic war critics. According to Gallup, just 31% of swing voters say Bush has a clear plan for Iraq, and 60% call the U.S. invasion a mistake. Alan Rego recently attended services for a friend's brother killed in Iraq. "The kid was my age," he recalls. "I voted for Bush because he seemed to have a plan to deal with terrorism, but Iraq is becoming another Vietnam."

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_29/c3943060_mz013.htm

[Hissyspit]

1. Only just now?

[Bluebear]

3. Hey better late then never!

[Hissyspit]

12. I know, bluebear, but I am just so in my "I TOLD YOU SO!" mode...

I just get so worked up. But great OP, thanks.

[Bluebear]

14. Cheers hissyspit!

'I told you so' moods are understandable and justified! As long as the tables start turning! :toast:

[Born Free]

32. Don't worry, spineless democrats willl push them back

The democrats have the issues but their spineless ways will turn off the independents again, as usual. The spineless Demcorats are famous for sacrificing themselves to help the GOP.

[Gloria]

2. I should hope so, for god's sake....

eom

[devilgrrl]

4. Can you say...

TOLD YOU SO!!!!!

[Hissyspit]

18. Someone else in an "I Told You So!" mode!

(See my post #12) :7

[devilgrrl]

24. :-)

:thumbsup:

[senseandsensibility]

5. They lean republican on fiscal issues?

Oh, so they like record deficits, and being in hawk to foreigners. Gotcha. Now they're whining about *? Give me a break, One more push from the corporate media and the repukes and they'll be back waving their flags and screaming about terra. Sorry, the stupidity was old a long time ago. Now it's just evil.

[Bluebear]

9. Aye but that is the disconnect with these voters

They have been conditioned that Democrats = tax & spend and the traditional Republicans were supposedly so fiscally sound. The awakening is happening for them, however.

[roguevalley]

6. I hope they choke. Pretzels anyone?!?

[Clark2008]

7. Just in time for 2006!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Bluebear]

10. That is the prize we MUST win. nt

[xray s]

8. Poof! And suddenly we have a "leaked" document that says...

....60,000 troops to be pulled out of Iraq by summer '06.

What a coincidence! And they say Bush doesn't care about polls!

[lostnfound]

11. Black box votes not lining up with the polls today, eh? nt

[Bluebear]

31. Great point

Will be very hard to finesse a black box victory with these numbers going SO sour for *.

[Zorra]

13. Anyone that votes for a republican in the first place is an idiot.

Hopefully, this fact will finally hit home with some of these morans by the next election. Here's hopin'.

[rexcat]

15. I have no sympathy for the swing voters...

I have told one swing voter who voted for Bush* that he should be encouraging his son to join the military since he supported Bush* in the last election. His reaction was he would send his son to Canada if there were a draft. He is unremorseful for voting for Bush*.

He told me Kerry had no plan but I countered that with "Kerry would have listened to the Generals and placed more troops on the ground." He had no come back on this point. Personally, I have taken the gloves off with these idiots who voted for Bush* because most of them voted for him twice.

[mediaman007]

19. If those "Swing" voters still think that Bush* is doing a good job,

then they were never considering Kerry in the first place. They were just "Independent" for the attention. They obviously lied in the first place, which makes them Republican to start with.

[Carla in Ca]

28. "Kerry had no plan"

Oh, like * did? See, that's what gets me. What is it that they like about massive debt and soldiers dying? I guess swing voter means they like being up in the trees with *.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. Jeebers, that is the most totally creepy photo of El Chimpo.

He looks completely deranged.

[WillyT]

27. Oh... I Don't Know... Can't Decided Which One Is Scarier !!!

But then... that's just me.

:scared::shrug::scared:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

17. These morons piss me off more than the diehard Republicans.

How the hell can you change your mind after eight months? It's not like Bush wasn't fucking up things beforehand. I hope these fuckers end up paying $5.00 a gallon.

[intheflow]

20. I've been saying this for months.

I'm sure it was the Schiavo incident that swayed my life-long Republican mother to finally take interest in my lefty views. I was visiting her in March when Congress started getting in it, and not only was she not pleased, she even sounded a little scared when we were discussing it.

[opihimoimoi]

21. I Guess its better late than never,,,, but the price of a poor vote.....

How High will it go?

Peeps don realize how important their vote is...think its just one vote....What they don realize is its one to a pile of votes....which pile wins is how the Nation will be run.

In Bushies case...he is worse than a rank amateur...at least amateurs learn... but for Bush, he is too arrogant...fed by delusions of grandeur....of the worst kind....

and now we pay that price....blood, $$$$$$$ Billions worth, Nat Debt at 8 Trillion...and counting.....Coffins keep on coming too.

"Bring it on" my ass. Fuck him, he is a turd of the highest degree.

[frictionlessO]

22. Social moderates can kiss my ass! You know how many more people

are going to die because you thought the left wing were wimps?!?

Fuckin morons, Iraq thanks you as does the environment, healthcare, SS, medicare, first responders, and the list goes on. No really thanks.... was it the gay marriage thing? just not moderate enough so you have to endorse the once and future war criminal?

That being said welcome through the looking glass, you are about to experience a bit of the rage I've just expressed. Its reality.

[wabranty]

23. But will the Democrats be able to capitalize on this. . .

or will they let another golden opportunity go by? People are receptive to the Democratic message - let's pull it together for 2006!

[skids]

25. My god, that photo.

Heheheh. What a lovable creature he is...not!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

26. His face belongs in a Twilight Zone Episode: "Eye Of The Beholder"

The episode of those people who had twisted mouths and noses as the standard of beauty on their planet and where Donna Douglas wanted plastic surgery to look like them.

[FreedomAngel82]

29. Good

Now hopefully they'll vote democratic at least next year.

[PartyPooper]

30. If only we had an "eight month guaranteed return policy".

:eyes:

[Hubert Flottz]

33. I hope they choke on it!

Bush must have hit them in the ass pocket too!

[cap]

34. we have our work cut out for us...

we can win if we try.