Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Friday, August 05, 2011

Independents in the Age of Alienation

Discussion of who independents are continues:

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
  • Towering Wave of Alienation Threatens Both GOP, Dems in 2012 (By Ronald Brownstein, National Journal) In the shadow of the bitterly fought agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling, the independent voters who usually hold the balance of power in American politics are expressing astronomical levels of discontent with President Obama, Congress, and the Washington system itself.
  • The Cook Report: Whole Foods versus Cracker Barrel: How Americans Are Self-Sorting -- More and more, politically like-minded Americans are living next to each other. Polarization is one result. (Charlie Cook, National Journal/ The Cook Report)
  • Do Independent Voters Matter? (Robert de Neufville, Big Think)
  • What if Obama's Debt Compromise Doesn't Impress Independents? (By David Corn, Mother Jones) As Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post and others note, the most interesting aspect of the initial polls taken after the denouement of Debtageddon is that indies are not keen on the compromise.
  • Obama’s Wrong on Independents And reporters shouldn’t be saying he’s right (By Greg Marx, Columbia Journalism Review) So, to sum up: most “independents” aren’t independent. The ones who are care most about the economy, not displays of bipartisanship. And winning independents doesn’t guarantee you’ll win the popular vote.
  • Obama's big drags (By: Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, Politico) Even in good times, Obama would have a tough reelection. The 2008 election — featuring a weak GOP candidate, in a terrible political environment for Republicans — obscured the inescapable fact of modern politics: This is a 50-50 nation, controlled at the presidential level by independents.

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