March 15, 2012

SandBoxBlogs: LA Times "Swing voters: Diverse, misunderstood and crucial in 2012"

David Lauter, Washington Bureau:
"Over the next eight months, presidential campaigns will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to penetrate the suburban living rooms of people like 33-year-old Sarah Hays.

"I agree with certain parts of the philosophies of both parties," Hays said in a recent interview as two of her three children — ages 6, 4 and 21 months — played within reach at their St. Louis-area home. "I'm a Catholic, and I'm pro-life, and that's very important to me," she said, "but I don't believe that pro-life means only antiabortion.

"I think we should be fiscally conservative, and yet I think we should take care of people."

Hays is that rarest of people in a closely divided and sharply polarized country — a swing voter — dissatisfied with both parties, crucial to either one's hope of success.

Over the last few months, as the Republican primary battle has focused on the most conservative parts of the party's core, several polls have shown President Obama making headway with self-described independents like Hays. As a result, the percentage of voters expressing approval of his performance in office has slowly risen in most recent surveys...."  (Read more?  Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

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