Republicans and the Empathy Gap

Charlie Cook: “In the last election, when people
were asked to choose which quality mattered the most in deciding how
they voted for president, the top choice was ‘has a vision for the
future’ at 29 percent, followed by ‘shares my values’ at 27 percent.
Coming in third was ‘cares about people like me’ at 21 percent, and, in
fourth place, ‘is a strong leader’ at 18 percent. Romney scored higher
on three out of four of these qualities. Those choosing ‘shares my
values’ voted 55 percent for Romney and 42 percent for Obama. Those who
picked ‘is a strong leader’ as a key quality in their president sided
for Romney, 61 percent to 38 percent. Those who said ‘has a vision for
the future’ went 54 percent for Romney, 45 percent for Obama.”

“Looking at
these numbers, one might assume Romney won the election. However, among
the one in five voters for whom ‘cares about people like me’ was most
important, Obama won 81 percent to 18 percent. That is a jaw-dropping
finding as Republicans search for the answer to the question, ‘Why did
we lose?’ Republicans need to think about these results as they decide
how to position their party for 2014 and 2016, lest they watch this
empathy gap cost them another winnable election.”