Election 2012: Where Do We Go From Here?

I had the unexpected pleasure (well, the pleasure was unexpected) of attending a forum at Columbia University yesterday evening sponsored by the Brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Eta Chapter entitled "Election 2012: Where Do We Go From Here?" loosely subtitled "Obama vs Romney."

The forum was held at Columbia University before a multiracial, predominately African American audience of about 65 people. The panelists were: Chet Whye, ED of Jarlem4Change; Gregory T. Angelo, Chair of Log Cabin Republican of NY State; Cathy Stewart, Chair of NY County Independence Party; Thomas Basile, founder of a tea-party organization in NY State; Bernard Whitman, Democratic Party pollster and author of 52 Reasons to Vote for Obama.

Full disclosure: My first thought when I heard the name of the event was 'Great! The election is over and now we can get back to the important work of building a progressive grassroots movement that can change our partisan political culture and is reaching out to youth, to independents, to the full spectrum of the American electorate.'

The dialogue was intelligent, active and thought-provoking.

Cathy Stewart is remarkably skillful at hammering away at the structural issues facing an American electorate that tips 40% and growing.

Enjoy this clip from her opening statement:

Hankster News of the Day for Independent Voters - September 19

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Analysis: WMUR Poll shows Romney, Obama still fighting over N.H. independent voters (WMUR) For 20 years, independent voters have decided general elections in New Hampshire. The reason is obvious: they are the largest voting block. The most recent voter registration numbers suggest that 38.5 percent of registered voters are “undeclared.”
• The Romney conundrum: Winning independents but losing overall (By Christian Heinze, The Hill/ Ballot Box) And during that time, Romney has done something with independents Obama has yet to do — lead among them by double digits. In fact, post-Democratic National Convention, a CBS/New York Times poll had Romney up by 11 percentage points with independents, while a CNN survey had him up by 14. Meanwhile, Obama led overall by 3 in the CBS poll and 6 in the CNN survey. Simply put, Romney is winning nationally with independents, but they’re not playing their usual tiebreaking role in elections.

OPEN PRIMARIES
Let the debate on open primary finally begin (ARIZONA DAILY SUN) With two months to go before the votes are counted Nov. 6, we can expect a vigorous campaign by both sides, although we will be interested to see which groups come out in defense of the status quo. On the other hand, any change to the electoral process as substantive as the one that will ushered in by Prop. 121 is bound to have some unintended consequences, and we'll be interested to learn what those scenarios might contain. So far, neither Washington state nor California has encountered major problems with their new open primary systems, and we urge Arizona voters to become educated on the issue and cast an informed vote on Nov. 6.

Sunday morning ACME comic

Hankster News of the Day for Independent Voters - August 3

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
OutFront Political Strike Team splits on Romney's overseas trip (CNN/Outfront Strike Team)

After a series of gaffe's made by Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney overseas, many are wondering whether Romney's overseas trip was a success or an epic failure.

Our OutFront Political Strike team weighed in on whether Romney would have been better off staying home.

Dr. Omar H. Ali:
No. In our largely he said-he said partisan-driven political culture, negativity will trump positive messages and efforts to create meaningful dialogue every time… The reason why so many people are abandoning their partisan affiliation (currently 4 out of 10 voters are now independent) is because of widespread and increasing recognition that the parties are more interested in winning (and keeping their offices) than creating healthy, meaningful dialogue for the nation's development.

Hankster News of the Day for Independent Voters - August 2

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• New Polls in Three Battleground States Show Obama Edge (By JEFF ZELENY and DALIA SUSSMAN, NY Times) While independent voters break strongly for Mr. Obama in Pennsylvania, a state that Mr. Romney has been trying to make more competitive, they are closely split in Florida and Ohio. Of the coalition that Mr. Obama built to win the White House, independent voters remain a hurdle, with a little more than half in Florida and Ohio saying they disapprove of his job performance.
• Why Romney’s Pulling Back on PA Ad Spending Share With Friends (Keystone Politics) Pennsylvania women voters back Obama 59 – 35 percent, while men go 50 percent for Romney and 47 percent for Obama. Independent voters back Obama 58 – 36 percent.
• POLL: President Obama reaches magic number with Florida voters - President Obama edges out Romney in Florida (Local 10 - Miami) Both candidates run strong among their own party’s voters while independent voters split with 47 percent for Obama and 46 percent for Romney.
• ALSO SEE Miami Herald HERE

FULL Quinnipiac University/CBS News/New York Times POLL DATA HERE

Wile E. Voter

Is Roadrunner finally done for? More on Monday.

Buena Suerte

Independents 2012: Don't Bet Your House

2012

• Unaligned N.H. vote a test for Mitt Romney - Independents could change the momentum in GOP (By Sarah Schweitzer, Boston Globe) Undeclared voters - who are commonly called independents, and who account for more than 40 percent of New Hampshire’s registered voters - don’t appear poised to derail Romney’s longtime lead over his rivals in New Hampshire. With 39 percent of the overall vote in the UNH Survey Center/Boston Globe poll released Sunday, he had a comfortable margin, and significant support among the independents. Among those independents who have declared their allegiance, 32 percent say they back Romney. 
• Youth vote won't return for Obama in 2012, report says (By Perry Bacon Jr., the Grio) In a report on Wednesday, Curtis Gans, director of the Washington-based Center for the American Electorate, predicted voter turnout overall (as a percentage of the eligible voting population) would be lower than in 2008 or 2004. He argued those two elections fired up voters, particularly Democrats, in a way neither party will in 2012.
• New Iowa Poll May Understate Paul’s Support (By NATE SILVER, NY Times/ FiveThirtyEight) The recent Public Policy Polling survey, for instance, estimated that 24 percent of Iowa caucus participants are currently registered as independents or Democrats and will re-register as Republicans at the caucuses. This month’s Washington Post/ABC News poll put the fraction at 18 percent. There is room to debate what the right number is but it will certainly not be zero, as the CNN poll assumes.
• Democrats Lag in Voter Registration (By LAURA MECKLER, Wall Street Journal) Today, far fewer people are registering, and the enormous Democratic advantage among new voters in North Carolina has vanished, according to new data from Catalist, a group with Democratic ties that studies voter rolls. That illustrates a broader challenge for the president's party. Democrats still hold an overall registration advantage in many states, but Obama campaign officials and other Democrats say it is important to bring new Obama voters onto the rolls—both to replenish voters who drop off and offset possible losses among independent voters, who have been skeptical of Mr. Obama's job performance.

Occupy Wall Street Hits a Stride

OCCUPY WALL STREET

• Tent Pressure (Gotham Gazette/ Wonkster) It is getting cold out there and the protesters at Occupy Wall Street are starting to notice. So, Bill Lipton of the Working Families Party sent out an e-mail to supporters this morning asking them to put pressure on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to allow tents  in Zuccotti Park.
• Occupational Therapy (By Lisa Fabrizio, American Spectator) However supportive he may be of their aims, Barack Obama and his messiah-like campaign of light did much to erase the memory of the left's propensity to participate in angry demonstrations against the American Way of Life and so attracted many independent voters to his side. But riding to the rescue like so many socialist cavalrymen come the largely unoccupied occupiers of Zuccotti Park, just in time to remind America what a nation where 99 percent of its population consisted of slackers and malcontents would look like. And if the Obama Administration makes the critical mistake of hitching their wagon to this group of losers, he will soon join their ranks.
• Poll: Election 2012 Shaping Up To Pit Doom Against Gloom (by Frank James, NPR) Seniors, who gave Romney an advantage in August, have begun to desert the Republican front-runner, who is now losing these voters by a 3-point margin. More dramatically, Romney was winning 52 percent of independent voters in August; he is now at 45 percent with this key bloc. His biggest drop has come among independent women—who swung for Romney by a 22-point margin in August. Obama is now winning independent women by 2 points.
• Occupy Politics (Democracy Corps, Carville-Greenberg) The biggest shift against the Republicans has come from independents, who are increasingly turned off by what they see and hear out of Washington.  According to exit polls, Republicans won independents last November by a 19-point margin.  Their advantage had narrowed to 17 points in August.  Strikingly, Republicans are now winning independents by just 7 points. Seniors have also pulled back from these Republicans in big numbers.  In last November’s exit polls, Republicans won seniors by a 21-point margin.  This advantage has completely disappeared, with the vote among seniors now basically even (45-46.)

2008: Who will be the independent candidate?

Where are independent voters going in 2008? The ground is being set now...

NY William Weld supports Romney (NY Crains)

Obama to form exploratory committee (by Robert Novak, Chicago Sun Times)

A Moment Of Hubris On The Ron Paul For President Campaign (The Liberty Papers blog) "Ron Paul is Hillary's worst nightmare"

Will POTUS 2008 look like Texas Gov 2006?
As many as Kuff's World on Houston Chronicle)