Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
He won with high turn-out. Pissing off the base is not the way to try to repeat.
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The independents make up a larger and larger percentage of the electorate each election cycle, and are always in play. Yes, high turn-out helped him, but independents breaking for him heavy helped even more. They broke the other way in 2010. Their vote is up for grabs in 2012. He needs to pay attention to his base, but not kowtow to it - he needs to pick certain issues that his base cares about and that are not offensive to the middle and back them stridently - he should even pick a fight or 2 with the Rs on these issues for street cred. He also needs to present himself as the only reasonable adult in the conversation - an arbitrator of what is right and good for the country, if you will. Sometime that will mean compromising with the Rs, but even then, he should get something out of the deal, to protect his left flank and appear reasonable to the middle.
