Reply #3: More election analysis and the shift to the center

[bushclipper]

... no longer will we pay attention to political strategists who assert that swing voters aren't important and that independents and moderates don't matter. If Democrats are to make good use of the power they have been granted, they need to remember that last point. This election was the revenge of the center no less than it was the revenge of the left. The decisive votes cast on Tuesday came from moderates and independents, whom the exit polls showed favoring Democratic House candidates by about 3 to 2.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110802080.html

The political center forcefully asserted itself in Tuesday's midterms. The national exit poll showed that political independents, who divided their votes evenly between George Bush and John Kerry in 2004, swung decisively in favor of the Democrats. With roughly nine-in-ten Republicans and Democrats casting ballots for representatives of their parties, just as they did two years ago, the Democrats' 57%-39% advantage among independents proved crucial.



http://pewresearch.org/obdeck/?ObDeckID=88

"On Tuesday, the middle rebelled...Democrats took control of the House and largely by running moderate candidates -- and speaking to the concerns of disaffected independents and swing voters."

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/15965244.htm