Flight Of The Investor Class (endangering the GOP's hold on power )

[rumpel]

BusinessWeek

APRIL 24, 2006
NEWS: ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

Flight Of The Investor Class
Defections are endangering the GOP's hold on power

The investor class is souring on George W. Bush and the Republicans. People who call themselves investors (and they aren't all rich) are part of the reason Bush's approval ratings have dropped to an all-time low. Hitoshi Tada has voted for the President twice, but the 27-year-old St. Louis resident and mutual fund investor says he's disappointed by Bush's "seeming lack of direction or progress on any front." Tada, who describes himself as "conservative across the board," isn't impressed by the management skills of America's first MBA President. "He certainly delegates and lets others screw up," Tada says. He calls the scandal- ridden Republican Congress "a hapless, self-serving mess."
Pollsters say 35% of voters belong to the investor class, a group that helped put Republicans in power but now seems restless. The investor class cuts across income levels and age ranges. It includes union members, soccer moms, and a growing share of Latinos, Asian Americans, and African Americans. Within each group, investors are more Republican than noninvestors. Among union investors, for example, 56% voted for Bush in '04, while 63% of labor's noninvestors backed Democrat John Kerry. The only good news on this front for Bush and his party is that most investors think even less of the Democrats. "I have no idea what their policies are," says Tada, an animal caretaker for a pet care service. House Minority Leader "Nancy Pelosi really freaks me out."

The President, who received the votes of 61% of investors in 2004, now gets favorable job approval ratings from just 43%, according to Zogby International Inc., a nonpartisan polling firm. Investors' complaints include the Administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina and the Dubai Ports deal, the management of the Iraq war, the $8.2 trillion national debt, soaring gasoline prices, and immigration policy. "A comfortable investor class votes its values and favors Republicans," says pollster Thomas H. Riehle of RT Strategies. "A nervous investor class votes its fears and punishes Republican incumbents."

That's what Republicans worry about most in 2006. Defections among this group could hugely affect midterm elections. Even if Republicans win a bare majority of investors by holding half of those who have soured on Bush, the decline from past levels would amount to a 3.5 percentage point shift in the national vote toward Democrats. "It could make the difference between winning and losing in a number of congressional districts," says GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio.

more at:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_17/b3981044.htm

[acmavm]

1. Why do I have the feeling that there are a lot more of us out here that

don't belong to the 'investor' class (or if they did they don't anymore)? This administration has sent a lot of previously middle class Americans down to the bottom rungs of the socio-economic ladders.

[Warpy]

2. My pop had enough stock to support him. He fled Stupid

in 2004 and voted for Kerry. I think it was the Smear Boat guys who did his support in. A slander attack by fellow service people paid for by the RNC was too much for him to stomach.

He'd grown uncharacteristically silent about GOP economics policies in his last year. He was a stubborn old guy who never wanted to admit he'd been wrong, so he just shut up.

If there's an afterlife, he'll be waiting for Stupid with a shotgun. My mother will be at his side, cast iron frypan in hand.

It's not surprise that big money is now fleeing Stupid. Buffett and Soros gave them a clue: his policies are so over the top that they're queering the soft deal the super rich had under Clinton. The tax cuts just weren't worth the risk.

[roguevalley]

3. poor little baby. what did he think would happen? I send hugs to

your parents, Warpy. Mine will be beside them.