Dear Mr. Obama,
How do you? I am one of your supporters from the great state of Georgia
The total Georgia state vote when counted was close but unfortunately Mr. McCain gained more votes with 52 percent of the Georgia voters. Mr. Obama, you received 47 percent of the votes. A difference of 5 percent may not be that difficult to overcome by focusing on certain audiences. The sample size for the Georgia exit poll was 1,973 voters. I have been studying the 2008 exit polls and would like to share ten suggestions with you.
(1) People show that the trust you because they trusted you to bring change and because they feel you really care about them. There was an approximate difference of 60 to 70 percent votes in favor for you based on trust. Fulfilling campaign promises is important.
(2) Fourteen percent more white women voted for you than did white men. This is important because Mr. McCain received 58 percent of the male and 46 percent the female vote. Those percentages are the opposite compared to what you received. It is important to gain more white female votes, but also important to gain more white male votes.
(3) In terms of race Georgia voters are a real challenge. McCain received 76 percent of the white vote. The black vote went almost 98 percent to you for both genders but there are more white voters than black in Georgia. More white voters need to be won over.
(4) Both the self-identified Georgia Liberal and Moderates gave you a majority of their vote 85% of the Democratic vote, and three fifths of the Moderate votes. This suggests that a progressive program will guarantee keeping these voters.
But the Georgia Independent voters went for McCain (57 percent v. 40 percent). These voters are not hearing how your program is good for them so that problem needs to be resolved.
(5) Most of the Atlanta, Georgia city vote was for you, Mr. President, at 76 percent of the exit voters. The suburbs went to McCain by an almost a 60:40 ratio. This is not so bad for the mainly white conservative suburbs but it is not good enough for a Democratic Presidential win. Northern and Central Georgia voted mostly for McCain but Southern Georgia favors Obama. The South vote was 54 percent Obama to 46 percent McCain. This may be the place to put some extra effort for more votes.
(6) It is interesting that both White, born-again evangelical voters and those that approved of GW Bush both voted overwhelming for McCain. McCain received 89 percent from evangelicals and 91 percent of those approving of G.W. Bush’s presidency. This seems to be a difficult group to win over but a strategy should be developed.
(7) Voting based on amount of education shows about a 50:50 difference but when the education parameters are considered based on race, the white v. black dynamic is repeated.
(8) Another interesting piece of information from the Georgia exit poll was that when asked ‘Is this the first year you have ever voted?’ the most first time voters were for you, Mr. Obama. Sixty two percent of the voters were for Obama, 37 percent for Mr. McCain. This makes a strong argument for the great importance of registering new voters and bringing them into the democratic process.
(9)The exit poll information from the Georgia exit poll voters is interesting based on 2007 Total Family Incomes. McCain gains Georgia voters as family incomes increase from under $15,000 to $149,999. The ‘Obama dynamic’ is just the opposite. As family incomes decrease the votes for you increase. So at the $149,999 income level, 40 percent in the exit poll said they voted for you but those numbers increase and at the income level of under $15,000 the number shows 83 percent.
(10) There is another 50:50 split between voters based on questions about the economy. The following two questions demonstrated the 50:50 split. (a) How worried are you about the direction of the nation’s economy for the next year? (b) Is the state of the economy excellent/good or not so good/poor? A difference comes up though when the Georgia exit poll voters were asked to rate the economy as Excellent, Good, Not so good, or poor. McCain received the votes of 89 percent of the voters who said they felt the economy was good. You received 68 percent of the vote for those saying ‘poor.’ More importantly when the percentage of voters saying ‘not so good’ and ‘poor’ are added together, both candidates received about 70 percent. That points out a need to distinguish your strategies for the economy more clearly.
Thank you for your kind consideration of my thoughts. I wish you the best of luck in the current presidential election.
