Take a quick look at the following two tables from PEW’s recent report on the politics of Election 2012. These are the topics voters think are important by order:
And these are the same priorities divided by party:
Note these things:
1. While voters preferring Obama say they care about foreign policy more than Romney-leaning voters (+6%), all of the issues Obama voters really care most about are domestic issues.
2. Weirdly, while Obama-leaning voters say they care about foreign policy, Democratic voters are the least interested in foreign policy. Forty-nine percent of Democrats list this topic as “very important” compared to 58% of Republicans (and 50% of Independents).
3. Foreign policy aside, those who care much more (+14%) about Iran would vote for Romney.
4. But the real gap on Iran is not between Republicans and Democrats. He least interested group is Independents (43%, compared to 56% of Republicans and 47% of Democrats).
5. In fact, Iran is the only significant “foreign” and “security-related” topic on which there’s a meaningful gap between Obama-leaning and Romney-leaning voters. Terrorism, as the pollsters of PEW report, “has declined in importance as a voting issue… As recently as August 2010, 79% of Republicans and 71% of independents said the issue of terrorism would be very important to their vote in that fall’s midterm election. Today, 66% of Republicans and 52% of independents rate terrorism as very important. Democrats also view terrorism as somewhat less important than in previous campaigns (60% today, 68% in 2010).
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