TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Voices for change (BY JOHN GUERRIERO, Erie Times News) "I think that Obama is a smart and savvy guy who knew just the right notes to hit during the Democratic primary as an underdog to beat Hillary Clinton, and knew just the right way to attract Independent voters and some Republicans in the general election."
  
• Warner earned reputation for independence (JEFF E. SCHAPIRO. Richmond Times Dispatch) "Senator Warner's personal penchant for independence and willingness to take issue with his fellow partisans made him especially appealing to this pivotal bloc of swing voters."
  
• Most Voters Like Caroline, But Only 37% Say She Is Fit for Senate (Rasmussen Reports) Fifty-five percent (55%) of Democrats say she is qualified to serve. Kennedy is a Democrat likely to be appointed by a Democratic governor and it may not matter much that just 20% of Republicans and 30% of unaffiliated voters believe she is qualified.
  
• Despite numbers, GOP floundered (BY ROBERT MOORE, Coloradoan) More than 61,000 Republicans voted in Larimer County in the Nov. 4 election, compared to 50,600 Democrats and 54,000 unaffiliated voters. Despite the huge partisan disadvantage, Democratic candidates for president, U.S. Senate and Congress all carried the county by healthy margins.
  

POLITICAL REFORM

Is good governance gone? (LA Daily News) we'd like to see open primaries adopted. Voters should be able to chose from among all the candidates running - not just their party - a chance that would help break up the 120 Club, which is our dysfunctional Legislature.

POLITISOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS

• Blagogate (Jeffery T. Kuhner, Washington Times) Blagogate is about more than a brazen attempt by the Democratic governor to leverage a U.S. Senate seat in exchange for campaign contributions or a lucrative job for him and his wife. It is about a political culture in which bribery, influence-peddling, cronyism, abuse of power and misuse of public funds are widely practiced.
  
• Obama Triangulates His 'Base' (By Brent Budowsky, Consortium News.com) Since his election on Nov. 4, Barack Obama has appeared more interested in cultivating and appeasing political opponents than thanking the tens of millions of Americans who backed him – and building on their grassroots support.
  
• Catching up and thinking about tolerance (The Phoenix) While I commend their intellectual effort and attempt at compassion, I have to caution liberals and progressives about being too inclusive.
  
• Conservatism v. Liberalism Part V: The history of…: 'Independence'-making the case for It and agains (by Hassan Giordano, Baltimore Independent Examiner)
  
• How Historic a Victory? (By Michael Tomasky, New York Review of Books) Obama's win was strong enough that he didn't even need California (55 electoral votes) and New York (31). He could have spotted McCain those 86 navy-blue electoral votes, which he was never in danger of losing, and still finished with 279. It was, to use a nontechnical term on which political scientists and laypersons could surely agree, a wipeout. But was it, to use a technical term about which political scientists are more persnickety, a realignment?