McCain voters defecting to Obama are older white males

Reuters ^ | October 21, 2012 | By Gabriel Debenedetti

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Roughly 5 percent of respondents in Reuters/Ipsos polls said they chose the Republican contender in 2008 and will switch to Obama in 2012.

Who are these defectors?

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.

They are largely from the East Coast; nearly 4 in 10 live in the mid- or South Atlantic. Nearly 3 in 10 finished their education after high school, and nearly 2 in 10 have a bachelor's degree.

Two-thirds say they are absolutely going to vote, choosing "10" on a 1-10 scale for likelihood of voting.

Even though 38 percent of all voters believe the economy is the election's most prominent issue, just one-third of the McCain defectors agree. Character matters more.

[SandRat]

RAT BS.

I'm was a McCain voter and at age 63 I'm not defecting to voting for O-Bozo

RATs are in a panic.

[WL-law]

“What in the hell kind of electrician retires at age 56? One that works for a Union perhaps? One that worked for the US Government perhaps?”

Probably someone who has moved off the “looking for work” category into the “collecting SSI Disability” category, which by the way means they are unemployed but not counted in the unemployment statistics — a double winner for Obama.

Government dependency means you’ll consider voting for Obama.

[BroJoeK]

Sooth2222: "1/3 of that 5% are demented and don't actually remember who they voted for in 2008, and roughly 2/3 are 'rats lying about who they voted for in 2008."

Exactly.
These are the same kind of people forever calling up CSPAN-type talk shows with lines like, "I'm a life-long Republican, but I just learned that __________ [name Republican candidate] favors the rich, so I'm switching to Obama.".

Party affiliations reported to pollsters, and who people claim they voted for in the previous election, are both highly variable, depending on emotions of the moment.

For example, when Obama's popularity was at its peak, far more people claimed to pollsters they had voted for him than actually did.

Today the emotion seems to be mostly in the other direction.

[tomkat]

[SunkenCiv]

They are the racist lifelong Democrats who were repulsed by Zero’s racial politics.

Now they’re back on the Plantation.

Thanks Oldeconomybuyer.

[Mr. K]

I was against Romney in the primaries (strongly) but THE TIME TO BEAT RINO’S is IN THE PRIMARIES.

All the stuff that has come out in favor of Romney since then has swayed my opinion closer to favorable for him. He is a businessman who has fixed things before (successfuly) and we need that. He gave of himself to many charities (over HALF his income!!!) He PERSONALLY paid the college tuition for the children of a disadvantaged family. He PERSONALLY went over to a families house and fixed their clothes dryer. He does not talk about these things.

Anything other than GOP across the board this time could be fatal to this country.

[ari-freedom]

Reuters trying to blow smoke in our eyes again?

[onevoter]

“nearly 2 in 10 have a bachelor’s degree.”

In another manner of speaking - nearly 9 out of 10 were dropouts and lived off the system. With time, they have discovered that Obama has increased their bennies 10 fold and have seen the light.

[Wiser now]

This “character” baloney is going to be the meme for the next two weeks.
I saw an ad with John Glenn touting O’s “character” on Saturday during the OSU game.

[princeofdarkness]

Wow Reuters. This is just sad. Couldn’t you come up with something better or least more entertaining?

[princeofdarkness]

Yeah, that O is quite the “character”.

[tanknetter]

McCain voters switching to Obama? Pure Baloney.

A couple weeks ago I'd agree. After a conversation I recently had with a McCain voter (white male in his mid/late 60s with an MBA who is now retired after a successful career in business) who is now going to vote Obama ... I wonder.

The crux of the conversation centered on Joseph Smith and something called the "White Horse Prophesy". I knew who Joseph Smith was, but had never heard of the "White Horse Prophesy" and had to look it up afterwards.

Personally, I think the whole idea that Romney is the chosen one to fulfill the prophesy (which, as an Episcopalian, I could really care less about one way or another) is pretty silly. But the person I was talking with was seriously wound up by the whole thing. The conversation abruptly ended when I asked how, as a Roman Catholic, he felt in 1960 with all the accusations that JFK was going to be under the control of the Pope.

I think that there's definitely an undercurrent of anti-Mormon sentiment in play out there, and I also think that it's being deliberately stoked in various non-obvious ways (ie whisper campaign tactics).

I also think that if it's working, even to the 5% extent that Reuters is saying, it's going to pale relative to the number of Obama voters who will cross over to vote for Romney this year, or who are just going to stay home.

[longtermmemmory]

Zombie democrats. These are dumb as rocks old guys who think this is the democrat party of 1940.

These are the same fools who fall for the social security going away and are also members of aarp “for the discounts”.

[longtermmemmory]

If its Reuters its WRONG.

[House Atreides]

The needle of my BS detector is flying off the scale on this bogus article.

[Unam Sanctam]

I suppose there might be the odd bird that missed out on the Kool Ade last time and wants some now, but I think the reverse would be a much more common phenomenon.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Roughly 5 percent of respondents in Reuters/Ipsos polls said they chose the Republican contender in 2008 and will switch to Obama in 2012.

5%? Big whoop.

No mention of how many people in that age bracket who voted for Ubama in 2008 are voting for Romney in 2012. Must be too embarrassing to mention.

[RichInOC]

They’re defective, all right.

[riri]

Older white guys...hmm, public enemy number one is voting for their own captors? That would certainly qualify as Stockholm Syndrome, if it were true.

[catfish1957]

I call quadruple bs on this one. No way. The only defectors will be the white moderates who didn’t want to be seen as racist in 2008. They have seen the light.