Some Republicans to defect to Kerry's camp

[Miss Modular]

Wonder what Ronnie would think of this.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._crossovers_dc

Some Republicans Defect to Kerry's Camp

Fri Jul 30,12:26 PM ET

By Michael Conlon

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Ohio resident Bob Stewart says of President Bush (news - web sites): "He's been a world-class polarizer. I don't know if I can stomach four more years with him as president. He misled us into the war in Iraq and has mismanaged everything since."

A raging Democrat? No, Stewart is a Republican, one of an unknown number of such voters who plan to back John Kerry (news - web sites), out of despair over the war in Iraq and disappointment over budget deficits and social policies.

It remains to be seen whether they can tip the scales in hotly contested middle American states like Ohio as the Democratic nominee courts them and battles Bush in the final three-month dash to November's election. In past elections defections from both parties have sometimes canceled each other out.

Kerry and running mate John Edwards (news - web sites) kicked off that fight on Friday, leaving Boston and the concluded party convention for a two-week campaign swing across 21 states.

Stewart, 44, an insurance agent from Anderson Township near Cincinnati, voted for Bush in 2000 and is a registered Republican.

"I just have a gut feeling that Kerry can be trusted to make the right courageous decisions and will make a good president. He showed that with his heroism in Vietnam," he says.

Bush is "supposed to be a conservative and yet he's run up the biggest federal deficit in history. One thing that really turned me (away from Bush) as a lifelong Catholic ... was to see Bush go to the Vatican (news - web sites) and try to get the pope to come down hard on Kerry for his stand on abortion. That is absolutely appalling."

In Michigan, Dan Martin has run for local office as a Republican. He says his biggest disappointment is that Bush's reputation as a "compassionate, conservative" governor of Texas hasn't proven true in the White House.

"The foreign policy is a mess. The offensive in Iraq is reckless and built on bad decision making. On the domestic front I understand that terrorism has struck and he's occupied but any real progress on a domestic agenda has ground to a halt," added Martin, 32, a customer service manager at a health maintenance organization who lives in Rochester Hills.

In Tennessee, Brian Boland, a young music company manager shopping at a market near Nashville, said: "I've always voted Republican and my folks will just kill me if they find out I'm switching to Kerry this year ... but I am just frustrated with the way Bush has mishandled everything. All the untruths."

His wife said she too was switching. The Republicans carried Tennessee in 2000, even though it was the home state of Democratic nominee Al Gore (news - web sites).

At the same market Ron King, a black Vietnam Veteran, said: "I always voted Republican before but I'm against Bush ever since I found out that he doesn't love this country. His so-called military record is a sham. And the worst part is that he lies so much. He lied about weapons of mass destruction."

Lloyd Huff, 64, retired director of the Dayton Research Institute in Ohio, says he has "voted for a Republican in every presidential election I can remember" but it will be Kerry this time because "the Bush administration has been the most deceitful, duplicitous, secretive administration this country has ever had."

"Going to war in Iraq was a horrible, horrible mistake," he said. He accused Bush of "an arrogant, swaggering cowboy mentality ... he has done more than anyone to inflame the Muslim world by his words and actions,"

Kenneth Warren of St. Louis University, who has studied and taught about voter behavior for three decades, said turning a trickle into a trend will be a tough job for Kerry because historically Republicans tend to be faithful. Democrats are more diverse and divided, a "party of factions," and more easily hived off, as former President Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) did with the "Reagan Democrats," he said.

Clay Richards, assistant director of the Polling Institute at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, says Kerry is getting about 11 or 12 percent of the Republican vote in Pennsylvania and New Jersey while Bush is drawing 9 or 10 percent of his support from Democrats, not a statistically significant crossover.

Before any Kerry draw could be rated similar to the "Reagan Democrats" effect, he said "the gap would have to be a lot bigger."

[Stabby]

FLIP FLOPPERS!!! WAFFLE WAFFLE WAFFLE!

[ArrowX]

YAY.....I want a waffle

[mburbank]

I suggested to Ronnie fairly recently that Moderate Republicans might back Kerry, that there might be Kerry Republicans the way there were Reagan Democrats. He basically laughed at the idea.

I'm sure he'd think this guy and anyone reporters find like him is either a put up job by Democrats or some bizare anomally.

I think the math is simply in Kerry's favor. Gore won the popular vote last time. I can't imagine a single Gore voter having switched their vote. I can imagine a small handful of center republican having switched theirs.

In addition, I expect a number of people who voted Nader last time around learned the hard way tat there was some differnce between Republican's and Democrats, so I think nader will pull a smaller percentage this time.

I expect there will be ugly, ugly struggles in swing states, especially Florida, which is still run by a Bush and has highly unreliable E-voting machines. I expect terrorist warnings in states that lean Democrat, or inner city areas, I expect ''security" to try to discourage people from going to the polls, or makes the hassle in Democratic areas huge, but I expect the Deomcrats to be ready this time around.

Are you still laughing, Naldo? Do you still think your Kerry is Toast threads and your hot air that Kerry had no chance against Bush whatever are valid? Are you still the exemplar of blind faith or are you just the tiniest bit shaken?

[glowbelly]

ohio is going to be a huge battleground.

george bush was in cleveland last night to make a speech for the international children's games. a lot of the KIDS were ticked off because he used the opportunity to refer to the war and how we liberated afghanistan and thanks to us a group of afghani girls are here to play soccer. then he went to a fundraiser in kirtland hills at some mansion that was by invite only and cost nearly $2000 a plate to attend.

[ziggytrix]

Originally Posted by mburbank

In addition, I expect a number of people who voted Nader last time around learned the hard way tat there was some differnce between Republican's and Democrats, so I think nader will pull a smaller percentage this time.

Oh man, did we EVER! But Nader's not even running with a 3rd party affiliation this time around. I voted for him last year in the hopes that the Green party might get the 5% of the votes for federal funding in the next election, and a protest against Gore.

But yeah, I actually like the candidate the Dems put up this time, so I'll most likely vote for Kerry.

[Stabby]

Originally Posted by mburbank

I think the math is simply in Kerry's favor. Gore won the popular vote last time. I can't imagine a single Gore voter having switched their vote. I can imagine a small handful of center republican having switched theirs.

That and I think this election is going to inspire a lot of people who didn't vote in 2000, or ever, to register and go to the polls this November. And these new voters are never counted in the polls...