Word: swings
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Ever since “Soccer Moms” catapulted Bill Clinton to the White House, the TV talking heads and political pundits have spent each election cycle searching for the swing demographic that will determine the outcome. In 2000, Bush won by courting “Nascar dads,” this year the consensus among political professionals is that it’s “security moms” that will pick our next President. In all three debates, both candidates made targeted appeals to these voters. All this focus on “security moms...
...perfected by generations of direct marketers, the more precisely they can tailor their pitches to individual voters. Undecided black housewives under 35 will get very different phone calls from the Kerry campaign than Hispanic CEOs over 60. Data mining also helps the parties find, and sway, those all-important swing voters. "Now we can identify individuals within a neighborhood, in a state, in a market, where we never would have gone and looked before," says Juan Proao, president of Plus Three...
When Gore did just that in 2000, many Democrats decided it was time to scrap the Electoral College. But that requires a constitutional amendment, not an easy thing to pass when swing states like the current system, which affords them a disproportionate share of the candidates' attention. The Constitution gives state legislatures the power to decide how electors are chosen, and since 2000, legislators in 29 states have proposed bills eliminating winner-take-all systems. Not one bill has passed. The party that dominates the statehouse usually has an edge in presidential campaigns and is thus reluctant to share...
...often cool and evasive, it can also be angry and hot. In the late 1940s and the '50s, anger came back into hip through the improvisational bebop style of jazz developed by saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. In response to the domestication of jazz by the swing bands of the 1930s, Parker developed a defiantly anti-commercial style, one with solos so rapid-fire they were too fast to dance to--and almost too fast to listen to. Real hipsters have always disdained the mass market...
Both sides say the election is ultimately going to be won or lost in the battles that are raging block to block, house to house--and even, on Main Street in Lancaster, floor to floor. Given the relatively small slice of swing voters, the two campaigns, along with an array of outside organizations, are aiming their efforts primarily at their bases. That means finding their voters, registering them if they aren't already, keeping them excited about the race, getting them to vote early where it's possible and, come Election Day, making sure they get to the polls, even...