Where did Obama lose (some) people from 2008?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

I'm not really talking about progressives or other Democrats whom voted for him in 2008 whom are somewhat disappointed in him but will almost certainly vote for him again this year but rather the "independent" and Republican-leaning voters whom the corporate media tells us voted to put him over the top against John McCain in 2008 but have since abandoned him (or will be doing so in November).

What is their real beef with him? What horrible things has he done that would make them do an about-face and go Republican in 2010 and, likely, in 2012? Why are they so disillusioned with President Obama that they are actively considering voting for- if not pledged their support for- Romney/Ryan? Is it that some of them became so freaked out and unglued about McCain's selection of Sarah Palin for VP in 2008 that they ignored everything else they might not have liked about President Obama and their own political instincts and voted for him anyway- but now feel comfortable voting Republican since Sister Sarah is on nobody's ticket for VP this year? Are they easily malleable (i.e. "low-info" voters) and have gotten brainwashed by Fox and the Republican Tea Party? Are they just thinking to themselves that things aren't getting any better under President Obama, so they think that maybe this Romney guy has some better ideas (though nobody knows precisely what they are because he won't tell us)? Are they just fickle? It seems like a lot of these people soured on President Obama really quick post-Election for no easily (at least for me) discernible reason.

What are some of things that you've heard about these people and why they jumped off the Obama bandwagon, in some cases rather quickly, after voting for him in 2008? My own personal theory is that a lot of them were "soft" supporters mostly freaked out about Sarah Palin whom voted for President Obama but then quickly got sucked into all of the Fox News and Republican Tea Party lies about the Stimulus and, especially, health care reform being "socialist" and thought that President Obama is too "radical" despite his obvious (at least to me) centrism.

What does everybody else think?

[Proud Public Servant]

1. Non-ideological voting

I don't think Fox, etc, really has anything to do with it; those listening to the right wing hate-o-sphere were never voting our way anyway. I think there's a certain strain of voter who votes for "competence, not ideology" (to use Dukakis' old slogan). That voter voted for Obama in '08 because the GOP had proven itself to be so thoroughly incompetent on all fronts. That same voter today, though, looks at Obama and sees him as incompetent, in no small part because he and his people seriously overpromised. Unemployment is not down to where people want it, nor to where Team Obama said it would be. Washington is more dysfunctional than ever, and while that's not Obama's fault he did foolishly run on fixing it. Afghanistan, the "good war" he chose to double down on, looks like a $2 billion-a-week debacle. Voters who perceive these things, and don't care about underlying causes, will peel off and vote Romney -- and then if, God forbid, Romney wins, and GOP policies make everything worse, they'll vote against him in 2016.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. I don't believe in these 'independents' at all.

I've never, ever met a person who might have voted for a Palin but decided to go with Obama through deliberation. I think the idea of such voters existing is delusional, but pushed as an excuse for constant rightward movement in our Party...oh, no, the independents who sometimes vote for insane right wingers and also sometimes for Democrats, all 12 of them, must be pleased.
I don't think such voters elected Obama, nor anyone else, because they don't really exist.

[LiberalFighter]

3. The ones that have died since then.

But there are probably more Republicans than Democrats that have died.

[apnu]

4. I think when you hear that they are referring to the "youth" vote.

Which comes and goes every year. In 2008, Obama built an amazing youth movement, the likes of which we haven't seen since JFK. However those "kids" in 2008 aren't "kids" now. They've all grown up and have left college... all that stuff.

Its true that Obama doesn't have the "youth" movement like he did in 2008. I think when you hear these things its some journalist trying to both make a story up and scare the reader at the same time. They never mention where this information is coming from -- that's always a clue that you're reading bullshit.

Others have pointed out that it is unlikely that someone who loved Obama would suddenly vote for Romney or any other Republican just as its unlikely a voter going for Palin (but not McCain) would vote for a Democrat this time around.

Both Palin and Obama appealed to someone "new" to the election process, McCain (and for that matter Romney) do not. That's because both Obama and Palin were considered "young" in political terms. Biden and McCain weren't young and so they appealed to an older set of voters.

Also, it is difficult to believe that there are very many "swing" voters our highly polarized society. Our two political parties have been drawing such stark lines it is impossible to believe that some 1/3 of the voting body is "undecided" and willing to flap in which ever breeze is blowing stronger at the time.

I think it is for that reason the hard right Christians have given up on outreach and have fallen back to a breeding campaign that also is heavy on home schooling. That way they can keep pumping out people brainwashed into their thinking. Which is pretty sad when you think about it. Their whole philosophy and rhetoric is so repugnant they must breed new members to stay a viable political faction.