We have been blogging lately on the increasing importance of independents and independent women voters. We aren’t the only ones who’ve noticed this phenom.
The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley A. Strassel looked at the poll of independents commissioned by Independent Women’s Voice and noted the independent voter’s preference for business experience over political experience:
A recent survey, from Independent Women’s Voice, found 63% of independents said they’d prefer a businessman who has new ideas to an experienced politician. A Bloomberg poll this week found that 77% of U.S. investors find Mr. Obama “anti-business.”
Meanwhile, Peggy Noonan notes that there are two important new factors shaping the political landscape. One is that voters are increasingly sophisticated about what goes on in Washington.
And the other?
Second is the rise of women as a force. They “are the drivers in this election cycle,” Ms. Blackburn says. “Something is going on.” At tea-party events the past 18 months, she started to notice “60% of the crowd is women.” She tells of a political rally that drew thousands in Nashville, at the State Capitol plaza. She had brought her year-old grandson. When the mic was handed to her she was holding him. “I said, ‘How many of you are grandmothers?’ The hands! That was the moment I realized that the majority of the people at the political events now are women. I saw this in town halls in ’09-it was women showing up at my listening events, it was women talking about health care.”