Remember The Day When Independents "Decided The Election"???

In 2008 and 2010 that is all we heard, Independents, Independents, Independents.... How many times did we hear "It's the Independents that decide the election". Remember that??

Well look how that's changed today. But oddly enough, we don't hear anything about the oh-so valuable "Independents" from the National NotWorks about it. Is Obama really "running away" with this election like they keep trying to portray or "running from it"??? Hmmm.... If Independents decide the elections, these numbers look like Obama's going to get another shellacking.

Not long ago, Independents were the go-to demographic for determining who would win elections. How the Independents swung, so too would the election.

In 2008, Barack Obama carried Independents in Ohio by 8 points and in Florida by 7 points. That victory among Independents contributed a great deal to his 2.8-point win in Florida and his 4.5 point win in Ohio. A victory by Romney among Independents could tilt both key states in his favor.

Curiously, Independents seem to be mostly ignored this election cycle, and their presidential vote preference is almost unanimously ignored by the MSM. Instead, “women” have replaced Independents as the key demographic. This emphasis and sudden fascination conveniently ties in nicely with the Democrats’ fictitious “War on Women” meme.

In both Ohio and Florida, Barack Obama’s “clear leads” all come from heavy over-sampling of Democrats, not from winning the crucial Indie vote. In fact, most of the polls that show Obama with big leads also show Romney handily winning Independent voters. Yet, somehow, Obama manages to increase his performance from 2008 despite Independents now opposing him. Let's take a look at how Romney is competing among Independents in recent polls:

Remember, these are states Obama won by small margins in 2008, primarily by winning Independents by 7 and 8 points. If Barack Obama were winning with Independents in every poll, it’s clear the media would be talking about it just as they did, to the point of annoyance, four years ago.

Independents make up roughly one third of the electorate, and one would think they might get a little attention this time of year just as they do every other election year. If Romney turns the Independent vote his way like these polls suggest, his chances of winning turnout in even Florida and Ohio are excellent. But the reality is that the way Independents are now voting simply doesn’t mix with the media’s tidy narrative that Obama is running away with the election in key battleground states.

Agreed. The polls are being used to try to disqualify Romney before the debates even start. The media hopes it is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Only our side can make sure it is not by working hard, talking to our friends and colleagues, and voting.

I have no doubt this race is tight, and I think Obama likely has a slight edge at this moment in the key swing states, but he also is sitting well below 50%, and Romney has a clear path to win. I think these polls are under-measuring enthusiasm and turnout on our side. There is no less motivation today than in 2010.

I think they are also over-estimating Democrat and leaning-Dem turnout, especially in the mid-western states, VA, and FL. There simply is not high enthusiasm for Obama, and it will impact turnout. They’ll get their base out, but not all the voters that came out last time. Some will stay home, or vote Romney.

If you remove all the top level results - national and state poll results, and look at all the underlying numbers, none of it looks good for Obama. He is down in all key groups - Jewish, Young, Catholic, etc. He is almost universally losing independent voters.

When you consider a motivated GOP base, a Romney majority of independents, and all the voter loses in key groups (not to mention changes in registration), it seems like a good scenario.

Yet, somehow the polls reported after going through the polling methodologies show a whole different picture.

Independents turn out to be other than politically viable. First of all, they are not affiliated with any political party, and secondly they have absolutely no idea what other independents believe, think, eat, drink, smoke or have sex with.

It's a lonely existence fur shur.

How such an amorphous indefinable unknowable group could have become a demographic is a great mystery.

Some could say the same about "Women" since they appear to have replaced Independents in the lexicon of the professional 'newsies'.

But, we digress.

Frankly, I don't believe independents exist. Sure, somebody will say they are one just to satisfy the prurient demands of some pollster, but are they really? I think it's more about the ROBOCALL PLAGUE

We had a member of the household accept a blind call ~ not realizing this was a pushpoll that member participated just for yucks. 'Yes, oh, yes ~ we love that Bama guy" ~ and that's where it went down hill.

The Democrats logged the number and it went into the file for later use ~ that being the Democrat DNC, National, State, District, and Legislative ROBOCALL files!

The machine had our phone number and wouldn't let go ~ first, it was just a couple of calls every other day a few weeks before the election, and it was this Barker dude running for the Virginia Senate. But then as each successive group in the Democrat stable that funds or helps candidate's logged in, it became 3 on Tuesday, and 8 on Friday, and a couple on Sunday.

One day it got up to 10 and I thought it couldn't get worse ~ but it did. It was on a weekend and this ol'gal knocked on the door and said she was passing out Democrat literature ~ pretty obvious she was a retired school teacher ~ had that hard-bitten "I Done Been Beatin' On 8th Graders Too Long" look. So, I Asked her, what can you do about Barker's robocalls ~ that I used to think he might be a reasonable man but lately I"d been getting these urges to DO SOMETHING ~

Well she got that wide eyed look Democrats get when they begin to feel they aren't welcome and began to look around for somewhere to hide. That's when i Invited her in to talk about this and she leaped off the porch almost to the sidewalk.

Offered her a beer as she ran away, but she was having none of that ~ her confederates picked her up in a car and skedaddled out of the neighborhood never to be seen again.

Alas, the robocall intensity increased to between 17 and 35 calls per day, and continued on into the post election vote counting.

I do not think I was alone in noticing that the Democrat ROBOCALL system was out of control.

Recently I read that the number of new registered independents is fairly equal to the number of lost registered Democrats, so could it be the Democrats tortured their own peeps?

That can't be all that good for get out the vote efforts, but even if they do show up does anyone really think these guys will vote Republican?

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