Who are the Democrats who voted for Bush?

[a new day]

Every poll showed that Bush had a higher percentage of GOP support than Kerry had from Democrats.

According to the LA Times exit poll 40% of voters were Democrats, 39% Republican. 12% of Democrats voted for Bush, 6% of Republicans voted for Kerry.

If Kerry had matched Bush on party loyalty, out of 45 million voter, 6% would have equalized the popular vote totals (a 12% swing), about 2.7 million less for Bush and 2.7 more for Kerry.

Who were these people voting for Bush and why? Why couldn't Kerry keep these people that would likely tend to voter for him?

[Cheswick2.0]

1. They were the ones who believed the war was good

and that there really is something called "The war on terrorism"

[PassingFair]

2. Southern Republicans

who call themselves Democrats. Zell Miller voters.
They haven't gotten around to changing their declared party, although they haven't voted Dem since they took a racist dislike to Kennedy.

[NYCGirl]

6. They're called Dixiecrats.

And they used to be real Democrats.

[redsoxliberal]

3. um... DUH! 9/11 changed everything

including this countries IQ.
:eyes:

[a new day]

4. War, great-granddad hated Sherman and wanted slaves, I'm so afraid

Those are all possibilities. So is they liked the tax cuts and didn't want to lose them.

What they were unlikely to be were Christian Coalition members, IMO.

When I hear all the hand wringing about going after the moral values voter, the smaller appeal Kerry had to the Democratic base than Bush to the GOP base is where I want to redirect it.

12% of Democrats thought Bush was OK? That should set off alarm bells at DNC Headquarters.

Kerry couldn't give people predisposed to vote Democratic a reason to.

That's a sign of a bad campaign. That's ABB, and many won't vote for just anybody.

Here's a good way to handle the moral values appeal:
http://advocacytoday.bm23.com/x/preview.php?id=40714_6e6bfae2_8817778_cbf0c27c

[mdmc]

5. dems that voted on diebold machines...

get it? cause thems rigged!

[LSdemocrat]

7. People who never bothered to change their party affiliation after 1964

[a new day]

8. I guess none of us could know for sure

I hope you all are joking when you bring up machines and voting registration, though.

In an exit poll, the voter is relating what he/she identified as at the time of the interview. The voting equipment is the poll taker's pencil, and the registration with the county is not directly related to what they'd say.

This disparity isn't an accident. They had some reason not to vote for Kerry.