Independent voters break for Obama and against McCain

[Barack_America]

Independent voters break for Obama and against McCain

Virginia Democratic primary voters who did not identify themselves as Democrats were more likely to back Barack Obama, according to exit polls.

One out of every five Democratic primary voters were independent — and those voters chose Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton, 67 to 32 percent. Seven percent of the voters in that contest were Republican voters who decided not to vote in their own party’s primary – they chose Obama by an even larger margin, 71 to 25 percent over Clinton. Self-identified Democrats also chose Obama, 59 to 20 percent.

Roughly one out of every five voters in the GOP primary were independent as well – but those voters did not vote for the party’s likely nominee, John McCain, who had been expected to benefit from their support. Instead, independent voters backed Mike Huckabee over McCain, 43 to 34 percent, with Ron Paul pulling in 19 percent. Republicans also broke for Huckabee, but by a much narrower margin, 47 to 45 percent. Virtually no Democrats participated in the Republican contest.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/12/independent-voters-break-for-obama-and-against-mccain/

This is what is driving the head-to-head polls between Obama vs. McCain vs. Clinton. Obama attracts Independents over McCain. That is what makes him the stronger Democratic candidate. And that is what will win him the general election.

(As an aside, I don't recall Huckabee doing this well with Independent voters in previous primaries. Does anyone have any insight into this result?)

[AtomicKitten]

1. And that's precisely how and why Obama can turn red states blue. (nt)

[Frances]

2. I hope that you are right.

But take nothing for granted.

[AtomicKitten]

3. Obama is fighting for every vote - state by state.

I'm hopeful.

[TheWraith]

4. Exactly--AND against McCain, who has a LOT of independent draw.

He still, for reasons inexplicable, has that "maverick" aura. Won't last, but most people haven't actually listened to him much since he lost his mind.

[AtomicKitten]

5. can't wait until Obama debates him on Iraq ...

[BayouBengal07]

6. All the more reason to vote for Hillary

We don't need crossover voters; remember only California and New York count. It's worked so well in the past!

[TexasObserver]

7. Don't it make your red states blue?!

[jasonkrueger]

8. There's no reason to believe that pro-Huckabee independents will vote for Obama

Huckabee and Obama are opposites. McCain and Huckabee are not.

We are using faulty reasoning to infer that Obama will win the independent vote here.

[Barack_America]

9. I don't believe that they will.

I think this tells us that we must have a different breed of independent in Virginia, because Independents haven't been so supportive of Huckabee before.

However, of the standard Independent that we're used to, it looks like they chose Obama over McCain. This argument is backed up by the several polls that we've now seen between Obama and McCain at the national level. Obama is winning those due to the support of Independents as well.

[Frances]

10. I lived in nearby Maryland for 30 years where I got

all your political commercials during election season. I also worked in Virginia for 8 years.

Did you know that Virginia closed its public school system for about a year in order to avoid integrating the public school system back in the 60s?

Did you know that old Virginia, like the Southern states that chose Huckabee as the Repub nominee, has many fundamentalist voters, not to mention fundamentalist colleges?

The reason Virginia is changing is because of the influx of outsiders in northern Virginia.

[Barack_America]

11. I don't doubt that.

I wouldn't be surprised to see that Independents voted differently in NoVa vs. Southern VA. That's why I said it looks like there might be two groups of "Independents" in VA.

[Frances]

12. I think you are right about their being 2 different types of VA

independents.