Whos running the country?
Actually Jerry, I think it's a pretty large group of people in the US who consider themselves "moderates" or people who don't just vote according to party lines on all elections. It seems like there are decent sized groups of people we can very generally call "liberals" or "conservatives" too, but in most elections it seems that these smaller groups spend most of their time courting the larger "moderate" group.
Ross, I agree there is a large portion that would consider themselves as moderates. But I would guess that the majority of them consistently vote the same way each election. What I am interested in is the subset of the moderate group that switches their vote each election. They voted for republicans in 04, democrates in 08 and will most likely vote republican again in 2012 or 2016. What makes them change their minds? And more in line with this discussion, does the media have any affect on them?