A recent CNN/ORC poll shows, among moderates in Ohio, President Obama has a 68 to 31 percent lead over Mitt Romney. On Tuesday's The Last Word, Vice President of MSNBC.com Richard Wolffe joined Lawrence O'Donnell to discuss the importance of Ohio's 18 electoral votes in the upcoming presidential election.
"Democrats need a super-majority of moderates," Wolffe explained, "There aren't as many self-identified Democrats as there are Conservatives and Republicans out there."
After the show, I asked him why he thinks more Republicans self-identify with their party:
"I do think that Democrats identify with a moderate idea," he said. "There's something at the heart of the Democrats' view of themselves and the way the country should be that means they believe in a community of shared values and compromise. And there's an overlap there with moderates—actually, there's an overlap there with moderate Republicans too."
Wolffe went on to say that the reason why Democrats elect centrist presidents like Bill Clinton or John F. Kennedy is because they reflect the actual make-up of the country.
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let's just call him out: media, newspapers, dems, analysts, magazines, etc...he is a PATHOLOGICAL LIAR!!! no one wants to say the TRUTH, this is what ROMNEY & RYAN ARE BOTH OF THEM...LETS STOP BEING PASSIVE ABOUT THIS, THIS IS WAY TO SERIOUS TO LET THEM GET AWAY EVERYDAY OF THE WEEK WITH THIS CRAP...OVER & OVER AGAIN, STOP THIS SHT!!! Not 1-day has gone by in over a year when Romney has told the truth expect his 47% tape, all the other words out of his mouth are lies...don't we call people out for just blantantly just lying everyday all day, no matter who they are?? who lies like this?? wht kind of person wakes up everyday and starts lying to millions & millions of people on a daily basis??wht kind of people support people like this that lie every single day??
Congratulations Richard. I was hoping you get a show of your own but pardon me if i do not remember your title but congratulations anyway (smile).
Hate to bust Richard's leftwingnut bubble he lives in, but a well respected national poll asked voters to self identify as to their political leanings, and the largest majority came down on slightly right of center, with more saying on the right than on the left wings in the spectrum. Then the poll asked the question "how do you see the two candidates, Obama and Romney there", and again the greatest majority said Romney was slightly right of center, while Obama was pegged as slightly left of center.
Wolfe seems to have confused moderates with Independents. And in Ohio, as well as in other Swing states and nationally, Romney is leading Obama with the Independent voters. And while there are more registered Democrats then Republicans nationally and in most of the swing states, the Republican and Independent registered voters are much more likely to vote, and have been polled as having more measured enthusiasm for this election than do the registered Democrats.
The polls tend to be quite interesting. One poll which was quite supportive of Romney showed favorability with Independents with in 1 point (standard error of gasp 6%!) and showed self identified "moderates" as 56% favoring President Obama and 36% favoring Romney.
"Swing" voters are probably more useful to study than the "Independent" classification. The swing voters are the 18% or so of "registered" voters who say they are undecided. While President Obama appears to have the edge - again standard error was quite large - and it measured registered instead of likely.
Just so the polls can be put into appropriate perspective - results in an earlier poll showed that 17% of Republicans viewed President Obama's position on issues to be either not liberal enough or about right. I'm trying really hard to believe that - but I just keep laughing. The sub categories of the polls are just too small to get dependable information.