November 21, 2024

Independents Leaning to McCain

Gallup says that John McCain has a sizable lead over Barack Obama when it comes to independent voters and that it’s happened since the Republican convention. 

John McCain’s 6 percentage-point bounce in voter support spanning the Republican National Convention is largely explained by political independents shifting to him in fairly big numbers, from 40% pre-convention to 52% post-convention in Gallup Poll Daily tracking.

I’d say his gains have come because of the convention.  No, make that because of Sarah Palin.

Polimom says that she’s re-considering the McCain/Palin ticket, too.

…the Palin pick told me that McCain is not afraid to think all the way out of the box — at a time when Barack Obama seems to be fully inside it.

In short, the playing field looks pretty even to me just now.

Saying I’m no longer a check mark in the Obama column doesn’t mean I’m voting for McCain. It means that I’m listening to them both right now — openly and without bias (as much as possible).

That’s all I can ask of another voter.  We should all do the same.

As regular readers of this blog know, McCain was my 5th choice, behind Huckabee, Thompson, Romney, and Guiliani, and barely ahead of Ron Paul.  So it’s hardly a no-brainer election even for a fairly die-hard conservative.  I’ve at times doubted whether he knows anything at all about the economy and his new social conservatism is a poorly-fitting cloak of religious invisibility.  But the way he stuck a finger in the eye of the Washington elite by picking Palin was absolutely priceless.  He’s got my vote now, just for that bit of mischief, so richly deserved by the establishment. 

Sarah Palin has just what D.C. needs – a sharp tongue and an I-don’t-give-a-damn-who-you-think-you-are attitude.  People recognize that, so it’s no surprise that she’s bringing people who think like her – even if they disagree with her on issues – over to McCain’s side.

marc

Marc is a software developer, writer, and part-time political know-it-all who currently resides in Texas in the good ol' U.S.A.

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