New Reality: 'Independent Voters' No Longer Decide Elections

[old timey villain]

Or maybe Obama lost the independent vote because many of these self identified Independents used to call themselves Republicans.

Moderates still decide elections, but there's a big difference between moderates and independents these days.

[old timey villain]

Yes, the breakdown of ideology doesn't have as much to do with actual ideology as it does with how voters prefer to label their views. Some people still have a hard time calling themselves liberals, don't know why- maybe it conjures of images of dirty hippies and draft dodgers. People do seem to be more willing to call themselves conservatives though, probably because the GOP has embraced the term while you rarely hear Democratic politicians calling themselves liberal.

But it's no matter to me. Republicans love to mention the fact that there are more self identified conservatives, but the "liberal" party seems to be winning a lot more elections lately...

[old timey villain]

Or maybe Obama lost the independent vote because many of these self identified Independents used to call themselves Republicans.

Moderates still decide elections, but there's a big difference between moderates and independents these days.

The article says precisely that...

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sorry, I only read the portion in the original post. Glad to see the media taking note of this shift in independents. I heard the guys on Fox repeat constantly the fact that Romney won independents- just another means to diminish Obama's win by making the false assumption that Obama eeked out a victory with a coalition of leftists and 47 percenters while the valiant Mitt Romney won real Americans.