Bush and the Political Center - from "The Emerging Dem Majority"

[wyldwolf]

Who’s in the center of American politics? One way of capturing this group is to ask the question: “If the election were held today, would you definitely vote to re-elect Bush as president, would you consider voting for someone else, or would you definitely vote for someone else?”. Those who would definitely vote to re-elect Bush are the hard pro-Bush camp; those who would definitely vote against Bush are the hard anti-Bush camp; and those who would consider voting for someone else are the political center.

The Ipsos/Cook Political Report survey asks this question and here are the results of their polling in November: 38 percent would vote to re-elect Bush; 36 percent would vote against him; and 24 percent would consider voting for someone else. (All results here taken from Charlie Cook’s December 2 National Journal web column.)

Here’s where it gets interesting. Our political center group–the 24 percent who would consider voting for someone else–is younger (44 percent under the age of 40) and tends to be pro-Democratic. About half (48 percent) are Democrats or lean Democratic, compared to only 34 percent who are Republican or lean Republican (19 percent are “pure” independents who do not lean either way).

That means if the election comes down to this particular version of the political center, the Democrats will have a built-in advantage over Bush. More evidence that Bush’s assiduous courting of his conservative base comes at a price.

http://www.emergingdemocraticmajority.com/newsletter.cfm?nl_id=47&nla_id=87

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[Wapsie B]

1. I don't see where

he's added any more people to his base. Even some conservatives are openly criticizing chimpy. Plus if some of these personal stories here are to be believed, many who voted for him the first time will not again. His base is crumbling.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. I laugh when i read "Democrat majority"

what majority? We don;t have state legislatures, governorships, house, senate, or the presidency. I hope our presidential candidate can put together a coherent message for the party so that we can grab back some of our former power.