In Northeast, independents angry at Democrats
Here’s an interesting nugget from last week’s detailed Pew Survey: Democrats are actually doing worse among independent voters in the Northeast than in the Midwest or Western districts.
Likely independent voters in this part of the US favor the GOP by a whopping 12-point margin with just over a month before the midterm elections.
Pundits such as EJ Dionne have suggested that the Northeast will be the Republican Party’s “Achilles heel” as conservatives fight to retake the House.
This from Dionne’s latest WaPo column:
“When we do retain the majority,” said Rep. Dan Maffei, a hopeful 42-year-old freshman Democrat from Upstate New York, “people are going to look at the map and see that the Northeast held.”
As Dionne points out, overall poll numbers still generally favor Democrats in this part of the country.
But the erosion of support among independents is something to watch, especially in places like New Hampshire and the North Country of New York.
If this “firewall” does crumble, the GOP’s gains could be truly epic.
Tags: election10
Maybe this is related to the findings of the recent AP poll which showed that about twice as many people thought the health care “reform” bill did too LITTLE than those who thought it was too intrusive.
Conventional wisdom has it that only the far right is pissed off as the “socialists” in the White House. CW, as is often the case, may be dead wrong.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39369615/ns/health-health_care/
Brain,
Please, if you ask anyone what a paerticular bill should do it is always MORE. Why is this a big surprise? It is going to cost a trillion dollars it should do more.
Even if you are ardently opposed to the law you would still want it to do more or at least do something other than increase health care costs as now admitted by the administration).
People need to stop being angry and get a life. If they continue to be angry about this, that and the other thing, they’ll be dropping like flies from heart attacks.
I am disappointed in the gulf between what I had hoped Democrats would accomplish in the past four years, but I am inclined to take a more measured look at the larger picture. I do not want to see the baby tossed out with the bat water. Why would I side up with a bunch of angry lunatics just to teach the people that I mostly agree with a “lesson”. That just makes no sense. I agree with Pete. We all need to stop developing attitudes based on anger. When I see all of these angry people on the news, all I can think of is a bunch of spoiled toddlers holding their breath and stamping their feet.
Also there is the whole expectations problem particularly with this President. The expectations were very high. The expectations were very high on health care reform, so where IS health care reform? I mean they passed a huge bill that was hailed as a huge historic accomplishment and yet what has it done today right now for real people on the ground what has changed? From what I can tell we have some laws against dropping people (maybe) and our premiums have gone up.
I do not necessarily see some of this as a big “anger” issue. The steroetypical “angry liberal” (remember all the anti Bush signs and bumper stickers?) now there is a stereotypical “angry conservative”.
I think that people who have in the past simply “grinned and bared” certain things are speaking out. That is a healthy thing. Folks just need to stay civilized about the debate.
Brain (Mann) you live in Saranac Lake. You should understand that there is a fine line between “democrats” and “republicans”. Up there as a republican I share more in common with many of the democrats than you would imagine. Nationally there is a large divide but that blurs as you move more “locally” especially to many of the more rural areas. As for the urban areas, they are so liberal that it is no surprise that they are not happy.
Concerning Paul’s observation, we need to remember why the Republican party is big up here. It all goes back to the Civil War when this area was for Lincoln the Republican and the Union. Party habits, like religion, are hard to break.