It seems as though the presidential campaign has become a contest of percentages. Allow me to summarize:
"The 47%" -- Mitt Romney's now famous comments about the 47% of the voters who are on entitlements and who won't vote for him. Therefore, it's "not my job" to care about them. This story has legs, it's now been about a week since the story first broke, and we're still talking about it. It also caused the Romney Super PAC to strike back with a couple of Barack Obama comments from the past. One concerned Obama's support of "redistribution" and the other was his (I'll call it inelegant) comment about small business owners -- "you didn't build that."
"The 1%" -- this (and the remaining 99%) seem to be at the heart of campaign rhetoric this year. Part of the reason why Mitt Romney has received so much criticism for his "47%" comment is that it fits nicely into people's notions about Romney being an out-of-touch wealthy elite who doesn't care about average people, and is looking to promote policies that favor the rich.
"The 5%" -- the approximate percentage of voters who remain undecided. This percentage is quite low by historical standards, and perhaps reflects the increasing polarization of American politics. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next 40+ days. Will we see candidates trying to shore up their base, or will we see messages taking a more moderate tone? Haven't seen much in the way of moderate messaging so far.
"8.1%" -- the unemployment rate as of August, which has gone down a little, but not very much. This figure is arguably a huge plus for the Romney campaign, because it can be argued that continued high unemployment is President Obama's fault. The Romney campaign hasn't really capitalized very much on this, since it seems to be caught up in its own problems and spending time defending its own positions.
"33%" -- approximate percentage of voters who will vote early (i.e., prior to Election Day). This has huge implications for the campaign organizations, because some voters will begin voting prior to the first presidential debate that is scheduled for October 3. Lots can happen in 40 days, but a fair percentage of voters will have already made up their mind and cast their ballot.
Anyone have suggestions about other percentages important to this election?
John Klemanski
"The 47%" -- Mitt Romney's now famous comments about the 47% of the voters who are on entitlements and who won't vote for him. Therefore, it's "not my job" to care about them. This story has legs, it's now been about a week since the story first broke, and we're still talking about it. It also caused the Romney Super PAC to strike back with a couple of Barack Obama comments from the past. One concerned Obama's support of "redistribution" and the other was his (I'll call it inelegant) comment about small business owners -- "you didn't build that."
"The 1%" -- this (and the remaining 99%) seem to be at the heart of campaign rhetoric this year. Part of the reason why Mitt Romney has received so much criticism for his "47%" comment is that it fits nicely into people's notions about Romney being an out-of-touch wealthy elite who doesn't care about average people, and is looking to promote policies that favor the rich.
"The 5%" -- the approximate percentage of voters who remain undecided. This percentage is quite low by historical standards, and perhaps reflects the increasing polarization of American politics. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next 40+ days. Will we see candidates trying to shore up their base, or will we see messages taking a more moderate tone? Haven't seen much in the way of moderate messaging so far.
"8.1%" -- the unemployment rate as of August, which has gone down a little, but not very much. This figure is arguably a huge plus for the Romney campaign, because it can be argued that continued high unemployment is President Obama's fault. The Romney campaign hasn't really capitalized very much on this, since it seems to be caught up in its own problems and spending time defending its own positions.
"33%" -- approximate percentage of voters who will vote early (i.e., prior to Election Day). This has huge implications for the campaign organizations, because some voters will begin voting prior to the first presidential debate that is scheduled for October 3. Lots can happen in 40 days, but a fair percentage of voters will have already made up their mind and cast their ballot.
Anyone have suggestions about other percentages important to this election?
John Klemanski
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