Sunday, July 18, 2004
Stern and the swing voter
Of course, Stern is way ahead of Limbaugh in the "values" department—not a pill popper, faithfully married, never even needed rehab, and not being investigated by prosecutors for doctor shopping. So naturally Stern is a Democrat:
I like it when Repubublicans say "something's going wrong." Just as long as they don't do anything about it, and go down to defeat.
The first surprise, according to Penn: nationwide, 17 percent of all likely voters polled listen to Stern. The second: Stern fans are just as likely as non-fans to attend religious services daily or weekly; just as likely to be highly educated; more likely than non-fans to have young children at home; and more likely than non-fans to own a gun. In other words, average Americans. And Stern fans in 18 battleground states said that they now prefer Kerry over Bush by 59 percent to 37 percent.
Simon Rosenberg, who directs the New Democratic Network, the group that sponsored the poll, says: "Democrats have been hammered on conservative talk radio for years, and now we have a glimmer of hope. I've seen this guy's impact, first-hand. It's incredible. I went on his show [June 29] to talk about the poll, and right after that, 25,000 people downloaded the poll from our Web site."
It's still possible, of course, that there is no such thing as a shock-jock voting bloc, and that the politicized fans who are messaging Stern's Web site are aberrations ("I just love you so much! I've never registered to vote until recently and I will vote for Kerry... . Some jerks at work don't like you, but I tell them to know their role and shut their holes.").
But maybe the Sterniacs are for real, as even some Republicans suspect. As party strategist Mike Murphy told conservative columnist Andrew Ferguson the other day, "Stern listeners should be Bush voters... . He is a symptom that something's going wrong."
Or, as radio industry expert Harrison says: "In a close race, everything counts. Any slight, insult, remark or incident can count. That's when Howard would count."
(via our own Philadelphia Inky)
I like it when Repubublicans say "something's going wrong." Just as long as they don't do anything about it, and go down to defeat.
