"McCain voters defecting to Obama are older white males"By Gabriel Debenedetti at Reuters

[applegrove]

McCain voters defecting to Obama are older white males

By Gabriel Debenedetti at Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/21/us-usa-campaign-mccain-poll-idUSBRE89K02120121021

"SNIP..........................................

Roughly 5 percent of respondents in Reuters/Ipsos polls said they chose the Republican contender in 2008 and will switch to Obama in 2012. This number peaked at around 9 percent two separate times over the summer, according to data collected since January.

Who are these defectors?

Jeff Waltrip, 56, is a retired electrician and retail worker who has voted Republican all his life. But in his view Obama "has done a good job with what he was left with, and I truly believe that allowing Mitt Romney in there is going to make the world a whole lot worse than it is now." Waltrip said he liked the Republican ticket in 2008 because McCain is a veteran and because Sarah Palin "made me laugh."

The McCain-to-Obama switchers are 55 percent male, and 34 percent of them are 55 or older. (Overall, Obama trails Romney 34 percent to 52 percent among white men over 50.) About 72 percent of them are white.

..........................................SNIP"

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. That Made My Evening

" Waltrip said he liked the Republican ticket in 2008 because McCain is a veteran and because Sarah Palin "made me laugh."

[hoosierlib]

2. Make that two

I'm a 31-year old white make veteran that is also switching my vote this year as well (though I've now permanately converted from moderate Republican to Democrat)...there are more of us out there...

[applegrove]

4. Glad you see the light. Was it Obama that changed your thinking?

[aletier_v]

9. Not at all. What changed my thinking was the epiphany

that work is finite, just like water, oil, coal.

Once you realize work is finite, a lot of economic history makes more sense. There is a reason we have a legislated 40-hour workweek and people like Romney and Ryan are absolutely clueless, having read a novel by Ayn Rand that made them feel important.

Work is finite, and in an economy of rising productivity.. it shrinks.

Work is finite and shrinks over time. What's happened for the past eighty years is that government jobs and "handouts" have replaced the loss of real work in corporations.

[hoosierlib]

19. what changed my mind was...

the way in which the right have demonized and outrighr obstructed the President since day one of his presidency. I didn't trust him during the 2008 campaign because I thought he was too naive and promised too much. However, he earned my vote by pulling our country out of the Great Recession (despite what the right says, the stimulus and auto bailout worked) passing Obamacare (granting universal coverage is huge), creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, nationalizing student loans, getting our troops out of Iraq and killing OBL. Not a bad first term and absolutely worthy of a second. I also don't government as being evil...there are msny things that we do better together and someone must police the wealthy...

[progressivebydesign]

5. Hi! Welcome!!!

I love to see new people who are thoughtful and intelligent, coming over to vote for the President. Did you know that the President's donations from military families are well above Romney's donations? I think veterans and military folks can spot the BS a lot quicker.

Welcome to DU!!

[aletier_v]

3. I'm one of them

The Jeff Waltrip profile is similar to me.

I have little doubt that Romney would be a disaster.

[applegrove]

6. Welcome. I hope you are talking to your friends and relatives about your decision.

[aletier_v]

10. My parents won't change their vote and my brother already did

seeing as he's been out of work for three+ years now.

I read this almost twenty years ago but I revisited it a few years ago. THIS is what a real presidential candidate should be talking about... buddhist economics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_economics

[progressivebydesign]

7. Great choice! Romney is a walking disaster.

He's like Bush with no moral compass, and zero compassion.

[LisaL]

8. As much as I disliked Bush, at least he wasn't flip flopping all the time.

Romney flips and Romney flops all over the place.

[fujiyama]

11. He has no core principles.

He is very likely a psychopath, not necessarily in the sense most people understand it, but the compassion and empathy that in many ways "weakens" most sane and decent people, seems non existent in Romney's case. I think it has been a key component to his corporate success.

As a leader of a country, it seems particularly dangerous and disastrous. Bush shared some of those tendencies as Mitt, but he struck me as more delusional in the righteousness of his policies (or those fed to him).

[bemildred]

18. Welcome to DU.

We used to have some good discussions with rational Republicans here, I miss it.
People forget that the Republicans USED TO BE the progressive party in this nation.

[budkin]

12. Wow that's surprising

Good read

[ailsagirl]

13. Bush was pretty bad

I think I've put him out of my mind but occasionally I remember how frightened I felt when he was in office.
He was universally despised (remember when he got some shoes shucked at him?). So there are similarities, though sometimes I felt that W didn't get the jokes about him but at least he had (somewhat) a sense of humor. Nitt, on the other hand, stinks. Pure and simple.

[amborin]

14. great....actually i posted this today....good that it gets exposure

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021593530

[applegrove]

15. Sorry. I try to read through all the posts of the day so I don't post something

that is up already, but today I missed some sections. I didn't have as much time. I'll leave it up for now since people are reacting to it where it is.

[amborin]

16. no need to apologize; i do the same thing

[Tx4obama]

17. That's okay. There are folks that read Politics2012 and not GD. So, posting political articles...

in Politics2012 is always a good thing

Besides those articles in GD fall off the first page pretty fast and lots of folks miss seeing them,
the nice this about Politics2012 is that it moves a bit slower around here.

[adigal]

20. I think my 83 year old father is going to do this

He liked McCain because my father was a marine in Korea, and he at least respected him. Bt my father is smart and he knows what a mess Obama was left with. I think he does not like Romney at all.