Re: Family Values (2)

["Petem" <petem001@xxxxxxxxx>]

Bass why don't you post all this crap to Comp.Home.Automation too?

I am sure its only a slight mistake,don't worry I will forward it for you


"Robert L Bass" <robertbass1@xxxxxxxxxxx> a écrit dans le message de news:
8PednRefFKfTxanYnZ2dnUVZ_tadnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> NEW ALBANY, Indiana (AP) -- After winning over moms in back-to-back
> elections, Republicans have lost their advantage among married women with
> children this year.
>
> The Republican Party has seen the support of people like Jeannette Hopkins
> evaporate.
>
> A 30-year-old married mother of two and a Republican, Hopkins voted for
> President Bush in 2004. But she says she probably will support the
> Democrat in her congressional district this fall "because of the way that
> everything's been handled" with the GOP in charge of Congress and Bush in
> the White House.
>
> "We're in a really scary place right now," Hopkins said recently. She
> vented about what she called the gone-on-too-long Iraq war, a sluggish
> economy, the bungled Hurricane Katrina response and a continuing terrorism
> threat.
>
> She blamed Republicans as she hustled down an alley to the office she
> manages in this Louisville, Kentucky, suburb.
>
> Votes like hers could decide which party controls the House and Senate
> after the November 7 vote.
>
> Poll results and interviews with political analysts indicate the GOP has
> lost ground with a voting group that helped the party keep hold of
> Congress and the White House in 2002 and 2004. Married moms have become a
> volatile swing group just as Democrats need to gain 15 GOP-held House
> seats and six in the Senate to win control of Capitol Hill.
>
> An Associated Press-Ipsos poll this month found that support is now evenly
> divided between Democrats and Republicans among married women with
> children in the house. Republicans won this voting group by 18 percentage
> points in 2002 and Bush won it by 14 percentage points in 2004.
>
> The shift among married moms was reflected in the anxiety-laden voices of
> several in the Ohio River Valley, a conservative region home to several
> competitive House races.
>
> "People have no money. The economy is not going well," said Michele Huber,
> 29. A married mother of three, she gave the country a "poor to fair"
> rating as she speed-walked in a suburban Cincinnati park with one of her
> children, a niece and a nephew in tow.
>
> A Republican, she voted for Bush in 2004. She said she was not sure
> whether she would again if she had the chance or whether she would vote
> with her party next month -- a sentiment echoed by others.
>
> GOP owned mom vote
> For years, the GOP has held a slight advantage with this group of voters.
> Republicans made additional gains leading up to and through the 2000
> presidential election, in part because, according to analysts and exit
> polls, married moms were attracted to Bush's emphasis on social
> conservatism and had a general fondness for the man himself.
>
> In the 2002 congressional elections, more than half of married moms sided
> with Republicans while only 35 percent voted with Democrats. Two years
> later, in a presidential election year, married moms preferred Bush over
> Democratic Sen. John Kerry by 56 percent to 42 percent.
>
> That GOP advantage has evaporated.
>
> In the AP-Ipsos poll, married women with children split evenly on the
> question of whether they would vote for or lean toward the Democratic or
> Republican candidate in their congressional district.
>
> The frustration in this group of voters is a reflection of the broader
> population, now down on the president and Congress as the unpopular Iraq
> war drags on and economic growth has slowed.
>
> "Married moms, like Americans in other demographic groups, are much more
> critical of President Bush, are angry at Washington, are concerned about
> Iraq and are worried about many other things," said Andrew Kohut, director
> of the Pew Research Center, an independent public opinion organization
> that also found married moms breaking even.
>
> The AP-Ipsos poll showed that married moms care as much about health care
> and the economy as they do about terrorism. The situation in Iraq is a
> greater concern than taxes, Social Security and gas prices. They tend to
> believe that Democrats would handle Iraq and the economy better than
> Republicans, but they favor Republicans on dealing with terrorism.
>
> 'It keeps getting worse'
> Outside a Wal-Mart in Fort Wright, Kentucky, two moms hauled their kids
> out of their minivans. One of the women voted for Bush. One did not.
> Neither was pleased with the direction of the country.
>
> "We're not happy," said Christy Blaker, 32, as she loaded a
> McDonald's-munching Emily, 4, and Becca, 18 months, into a shopping cart.
> A self-described independent, the stay-at-home mom and her husband, who
> replaces the brakes on train wheels, did not back Bush in 2004. She says
> she probably will not support Republicans next month.
>
> The war unnerves and conflicts her. She frets about "horrible" gas prices
> and bemoans an economy in which inflation seems to rise higher than wages.
> If life does not improve, she said she may have to get a part-time job.
>
> Across the parking lot, another stay-at-home mom, Tina Wagner, 31, voiced
> similar fears while two of her three children, Grace, 4, and Faith, 15
> months, fidgeted. Hope, 6, was in school.
>
> A Republican, Wagner voted for Bush in 2004 but expressed disappointment
> about his job performance in the two years since.
>
> "He's made some good decisions but I also think he's made some bad," she
> said, lamenting Bush's justification for going to war in Iraq. "I feel
> like he rushed into it."
>
> She, too, complained about gas prices, job losses, health care costs and
> lack of coverage. "It keeps getting worse and worse," said Wagner, whose
> husband's textbook sales job supports the family.
>
> This fall, Wagner said she would consider voting for a Democrat "if they
> fit my values."
>
> Despite the GOP's lost ground, all is not lost for Republicans.
>
> Laura Hall of Pewee Valley, Kentucky, has three kids, including a
> high-school-aged son who is considering joining the military upon
> graduation. The owner of a child- and elder-care placement service, the
> 46-year-old Hall worries about immigration, border security and threats
> from North Korea.
>
> A Republican, she voted for Bush in 2004. She is uncertain if she will
> stick with the party this fall. But she is not hot on Democrats, either.
>
> "I never see them explain how they could do it better," Hall said. "If
> somebody could explain how they could do it better, then I think I'd be
> more open to their ideas."
>
> Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
>
>
>