Speculation that ‘NASCAR Dads’ Will Decide the 2004 Vote May Be Off Track

[Wonk]

Feb. 15 — The president's visit to Daytona this weekend raises inevitable discussions of the latest alleged swing voters, "NASCAR dads." We say: Throttle back.

Soccer moms, campus kids, "freestyle evangelicals," "office-park dads," "security moms" — they crop up every election like mushrooms behind the barn (and they thrive in the same kind of medium). We call them the "group du jour" — the crucial swing voter group that's said to hold the key to the next election. In fact, as Ellen Goodman once put it, they usually can't swing anything more than a headline.

(snip)

For good measure, we checked rural, suburban or small city married white men with children and incomes under $50,000 in the 2000 exit poll. They accounted for 2 percent of all voters, and supported Bush over Gore by 70 percent to 27 percent. You really want to call this a swing voter group?

Give us a definition, we'll run the data. But we've seen it before: Take soccer moms, the group du jour in 1996. We found, when we analyzed the exit poll, that they made up a fragment of voters — 6 percent — and voted like all other moms — essentially like all other women.

more...
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/ThisWeek/nascar_dads_040215-2.html

[stopbush]

1. The NASCAR Dad crap is being developed for only one purpose -

and that is to beat up on women and women voters. It says that their days as a powerful force in elections has ended. Goodbye, soccer moms; farewell. NOW members, the real men are back in charge of this country's future! YOU DON'T COUNT!

Pathetic.

Bottom line - NASCAR dads don't vote to begin with, and the few who do are already safely in bush's corner.

It's amazing that the media spends 99% of its time manufacturing *news* like this rather than covering the actual news. And isn't it simply amazing that all of the talk of NASCAR Dads happens to coincide with the big race today? God! It's worse than those cheesy tie-ins networks do when one of their sister companies releases some dopey movie (who can forget all the real-news hoopla like "Are YOU Sleeping With The Enemy" when that stinker was released?). You can just see the synergy marketing department at NBC -"make sure Russert mentions NASCAR Dads on MTP...then roll the 60-second spot for Daytona at the next commercial break."

It's as sickening as it is transparent.

[Old and In the Way]

2. My read is different.

Bush is in big trouble when he has to do a hi-profile appearance to shore up this part of his voting block. He wouldn't be campaigning this early if his polling didn't tell him that is support is very soft now.

Have you noticed the stress level in Ed Gillespie's voice lately?