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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
Ohio 'Walmart moms' a battleground within a battleground
Sunday, October 14, 2012 9:53 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote:The clock on the mantle has ticked past midnight, but Jessica Lundgren is studying -- so she can't afford to think about sleep just yet. "I'm a single mom to a 5-year-old girl who is fantastic," Lundgren told CNN this week. "I work full-time and go to school full-time. So my day usually starts around 4:45 a.m. and ends close to 1 a.m." She works at a call center and is studying to be a medical assistant. Long, hard days, but no complaints. "You do what you have to do in this economy," Lundgren said. "You do what you have to to further yourself." A few months back, Lundgren was invited to a focus group of "Walmart moms" and said she was leaning toward voting for Republican Mitt Romney. But she is undecided now, and Romney has only himself to blame. "The main thing is because of some of the ads that are coming out," Lundgren said. "The one that sticks out the most is the ad where he was talking -- they had some audio of him about the 47%, you know, 'I can't really worry about them.'" "How can you put your faith and trust in a candidate that doesn't care about everybody?" If there is a warning sign in the new data, it is this: Among white women, the president leads 52%-46%. Back in 2008 when Obama carried Ohio, he received 47% of votes from white women. "Their biggest question is how are the next four years really going to help me and my everyday family," Omero said in an interview. "They are worried about putting food on the table. Raising kids who are happy and healthy. Who are going to have a good future. Who are going to graduate into an economy where they can find a job. So they're thinking about all that and they're looking for a candidate who can understand that." Sharon Wiseman isn't sure Romney understands. And, again, he has only himself to blame. "The one '47%' audio that we all heard -- I feel like he is not in touch with the common person, like the average middle-class person," Wiseman told us during a visit to her home in the Columbus suburb of Reynoldsburg. Wiseman describes herself as a Christian conservative and a 2008 John McCain voter. But the 47% remark turned her from undecided to strongly leaning toward voting for the president. It hit home because her husband, Ray, was out of work for a bit and the family received some help from the government during that time. "I feel like he is out of touch with what everybody is going through, " Wiseman said. "Ohio was one of the hardest places hit. My reaction to what he said is: 'That's me. He's talking about me.'" But it isn't just one Romney remark. The first debate also pushed Wiseman a bit more into the president's camp. Of Romney's performance she said: "It seemed like he won and traditionally it was a win. But I felt he came across kind of smug, a little on the arrogant side to me." "There are so many negative ads going back and forth so it is kind of hard," Lundgren said. "This is my daughter's future, not so much mine. So that is the hard part. I feel like I am making a decision for her as well, not just myself." http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/10/politics/ohio-walmart-moms/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Monday, October 15, 2012 3:09 AM
PHOENIXROSE
You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.
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