Wisconsin, the land of persuadable voters

[alp227]

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Pam and Bill Haaker are making a pilgrimage to the legendary home of the Green Bay Packers, Lambeau Field (or “Lambert Field,” as presidential candidate John F. Kerry called it in a moment of unsportsmanlike conduct in 2004). They pause to chat about politics. A few steps away, a bronzed Vince Lombardi stares down at them as though eavesdropping.

Pam is a retired nurse; Bill is a truck driver. Like most Wisconsin voters, they faithfully go to the polls on Election Day. Pam intends to vote for Mitt Romney, but Bill is still agonizing. “I just don’t think the poor guy can relate to the common man. He just can’t,” he says of Romney.

“You didn’t listen to the interview with the man and his wife. They had some hard times,” Pam tells him.

(...)

About 10 to 15 percent of Badger State voters have no strong allegiance to the major political parties and are truly up for grabs, said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette University Law School Poll.

(...)

The state has an abundance of “Bush-Obama voters,” who supported Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 and then voted for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008.

No other state has as many Bush-Obama counties, as graphically detailed by the Web site BushObamaAmerica.com. Some states, such as Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee, have zero. Florida, the biggest swing state, has one. Same with Missouri. But the Upper Midwest is blistered with Bush-Obama counties, and Wisconsin is covered with them, particularly near Green Bay and the Fox River Valley.

A typical Bush-Obama persuadable is Mary Shultis, 65, who works at the Door County Confectionery in Sturgeon Bay, a vacation town northeast of Green Bay. Taking a break from making caramel apples, she went over her history as a voter: Richard M. Nixon in ’72, Jimmy Carter in ’76, Ronald Reagan in ’80 and ’84, George H.W. Bush in ’88, Bill Clinton in ’92 and ’96, George W. Bush in 2000 and ’04, and Obama in ’08.

(...)

“I was definitely for Obama, but I think Romney came in with both guns ready to fire and he knew his stuff,” she said. “And Romney said things I hadn’t heard before. Now he’s all concerned about middle-class families. Wow, I don’t know who I want now.”

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/wisconsin-the-land-of-persuadable-voters/2012/10/15/db93c9d8-0f32-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_singlePage.html

[Art_from_Ark]

1. "Persuadable" sounds like a euphemism

for "gullible", if this is any indication:

“I was definitely for Obama, but I think Romney came in with both guns ready to fire and he knew his stuff,” she said. “And Romney said things I hadn’t heard before. Now he’s all concerned about middle-class families. Wow, I don’t know who I want now.”

[John2]

2. Mary Shultis

Mary is 65 years old. She thinks Romney cares about the middleclass now. You have to excuse her. That was President Obama's fault in that Debate not bringing out the fact Romney is a liar. People in the Press keep trying to handcuff President Obama. Vice President Biden didn't allow the press to handcuff him. The Press want point out Romney was lying most of time. If the Press want do it President Obama has to go after Romney. What was worst, the Pundits were also spinning Romney's lies as if they were facts. The Press was equivocating on Romney's 5 Trillion dollar Deficit buster with the claim, he just didn't fill in the Blanks.

The bottomline, Romney introduced a Tax plan that would blow up the deficit by five trillion dollars or not? That fact was true. It was true, until he fills in the blanks. Why should he be allowed to escape, just like his taxes? The Press is holding President Obama to a higher standard but not Mitt Romney. The way he bullied the moderator and his conduct in that Debate was not Presidential or something you would want in a President. I think President Obama should point out Romney's dishonesty tonight and his responsibilities which includes showing his taxes to the American Public. Even though he could invest in Foreign countries and get tax deductions in offshore accounts, Romney showed no responsibility when it came to this Country. The President needs to bring that out to this woman and the Public.

[HereSince1628]

3. I suspect Wisconsinites as a group are no more gullible than any other Americans