Gallup: Independents Moving To The Right
Plum Line
Greg Sargent
October 26, 2009
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/gallup-independents-moving-to-the-right/

There’s a key piece of news buried in the new Gallup poll: A leading reason conservatives are maintaining their edge as the top ideological group is that independents appear to be moving to the right:

Changes among political independents appear to be the main reason the percentage of conservatives has increased nationally over the past year: the 35% of independents describing their views as conservative in 2009 is up from 29% in 2008.

Here’s why this is interesting: It bucks a trend that appeared to be underway earlier this year. In the wake of Obama’s electoral success among independents, some analysts noted that independents appeared increasingly aligned with the political views of Dems and increasingly well-disposed towards Obama’s unabashed embrace of ambitious, activist government.

This, among other factors, persuaded many Dems that Obama was on the verge of transforming the electorate in a way that would further marginalize Republicans. But if indys are swinging conservative again, that’s one data point suggesting those predictions were overly optimistic.