Republicans are Chick-fil-A, Dems are Amazon?
A new survey digs into voters' politically polarizing preferences and finds Google and Fox News are among the top choices.
Mentioning PBS or Chick-fil-A in mixed company got pretty uncomfortable this year for reasons having nothing to do with a two-pickle Big Bird sandwich.
Both were among the Top 10 brands for Democrats and Republicans, respectively, on the YouGov Brand Index and gave America just what it needs just weeks before the presidential election: more ways to polarize each other into walking, voting caricatures. The YouGov BrandIndex calculated scores ranging from -100 to 100 by subtracting negative feedback from positive feedback on quality, value, general impression, satisfaction, reputation and willingness to recommend. From there, it's all pigeonholing.
Democrats firmly in President Barack Obama's corner this year made Google (GOOG) their brand of choice with a score of 65, with Amazon (AMZN) coming in second with 58.8 and PBS ranking ninth at 53.1. Mitt Romney Republicans, meanwhile, gave Fox News Channel (NWS) their top score at 64.5, with the History Channel a close second at 62.8 and Chick-fil-A coming in at No. 4 with 61.8.
The fast-food chicken chain finished out of Republicans' Top 10 last year, but anti-gay comments made by chain president Dan Cathay to the Baptist Press, the reaction they spawned and the reaction to that reaction vaulted it toward the top of the rankings. For Democrats, meanwhile, Chick-fil-A's score plummeted from 17.6 last year to -12 in 2012.
Not that Democrats are without their lightning-rod brands, either. General Motors (GM) didn't crack Democrats' Top 10, but was their fourth-biggest mover this year after "Osama Bin Laden is dead, GM is alive" became the catchphrase of their convention and auto bailouts became a cornerstone of the president's campaign.
So which group is making the most headway with foot-dragging, indecisive independents? If brands are any indication, independents are leaning right this year by embracing eight of the brands on the Republicans' list to just six in the Democrats' Top 10. However, independents' favorite brand -- Amazon, with a 57.3 score -- is one of the Democrats' favorite brands while falling off the radar for most Republicans.
If you're a candidate seeking some unifying common ground in the waning days of the campaign, get some quick photos of yourself starting the day with a bowl of Cheerios (GIS), working with Craftsman (SHLD) tools and washing linens in Clorox (CLX). While Republicans seemed to think bags of M&Ms were filled with the leftist agenda and Democrats considered a visit to Lowe's (LOW) tantamount to voting for Nixon, only Cheerios, Craftsman and Clorox on Democratic, Republican and independent brand lists.
Cereal, tools and bleach are fairly inoffensive products, but in a season commonly boiled down to latte-swilling hybrid drivers vs. gun-toting truck owners they're welcome common ground.
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This says it all:
LAND O' LAKES, Fla. - For the first time in 40 years, Iowa's largest and most influential newspaper is backing a Republican for president.
The Des Moines Register editorial board endorsed Saturday night over his rival . The paper endorsed Obama in 2008. Citing Romney's private sector experience and his ability to work across the aisle as governor, the paper decided him best to fix the nation's problems.
"Voters should give a chance to correct the nation's fiscal course and to implode the partisan gridlock that has shackled Washington and the rest of America - with the understanding that he would face the same assessment in four years if he does not succeed," the paper concluded.
The paper praised Romney's private sector experience - both as an executive at a hedge fund and running the successful 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics - and commended his plan to encourage growth through lowering taxes, increasing energy production, expanding trade, and balancing the federal budget. Coupled with his term as a Republican governor of blue Massachusetts, where he worked with Democrats to plug budget deficits and pass health care reform, the paper said he was best primed to jump-start the economy. .........................
(ON OBAMA)
"The president's best efforts to resuscitate the stumbling economy have fallen short. Nothing indicates it would change with a second term in the ," the paper wrote.
Both candidates desperately sought the paper's endorsement - Romney met with the editorial board at a family farm in Van Meter on October 9. The president had an off the record chat with editors last week, before a public blog post scolding the forced them to allow it to be printed.
Read more:
Undecided voters....be very afraid of Romney....he is going to make the Cubean Missle Crisis look like a walk in the park.
His $2T War budget increase will be used. He is easily talked into war, he has no reasoning power. His constant flip flop is a sign of his instability !!! He will draft and send your kids to war. (His won't go, they're exempt)
This is the real story.....
Which Romney will we see today on tv, the real one or the flip flopper ?????
For War against War, for women against women, for middleclass against middleclass, for coal against coal, for medical reform against medical reform.
A real shape shifter, a chameleon. America wake up to this guy he been an opportunist all his life !
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