Swing vote what is

The idea of an entire election coming down to one man's vote is admittedly just a tad difficult to accept. But the movie makes a plucky stab at explaining how it comes to happen -- and it almost sounds plausible. Everything depends on Molly. From the opening scene Bud's too hungover to get Molly to school , we see she's trying her best to be loyal to him, although he's a daily problem.

This day, as it turns out, is Election Day, and she is determined at all costs that her dad will turn up at the polling place and vote. It doesn't turn out that way. Bud gets laid off at the egg works, gets drunk, passes out. Molly waits impatiently at the polling place, where he promised to turn up on time.

He doesn't, but an ingenious plot strategy makes it appear that he did, and that his vote was not counted, and when the whole election comes down to that one vote in New Mexico, well, then you've got your movie.

The media descend on the town like a locust swarm. TV cameras and reporters are camped permanently outside the Johnson house trailer. Molly, who knows what really happened, keeps it to herself.

We also meet the two presidential candidates. Yes, they both fly to New Mexico to court Bud Johnson's decisive vote, and promise him the sun, the moon and the stars. Dennis Hopper plays Democratic challenger Donald Greenleaf. Oddly enough, there are times when the managers seem to have more ethics than the candidates.

The movie is a genial comedy, but it has significant undertones. Like some of Frank Capra's pictures "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" comes to mind , it shows a little guy up against the establishment -- except this time, it's a little girl, encouraging her dad to do the right thing.

This works, because if there's one thing Bud Johnson doesn't want to do, it's embarrass Molly. All comes down to a crucial speech before his deciding vote. It's a Capraesque speech, incorporating big ideas into everyday language, and Costner delivers it with dignity, avoiding various pitfalls easily imagined. The speech doesn't make anyone very happy, but that's the idea.

Costner makes a convincing everyman, even handling the transition from drunk to diplomat in one week flat. The turning point comes when he and the president relax in lawn chairs, contemplating Air Force One, and Bud pours out a margarita instead of drinking it. Sober, he turns out to be a pretty smart guy.

Molly always knew that. Young Madeline Carroll is splendid in the role, which during some stretches of the film, is really the lead.

She's clear-eyed and outspoken, has faith in her dad and despite his drinking, loves living with him; once we get a glimpse of her mom Mare Winningham , we understand why. The whole film is strongly cast, and I especially like Stanley Tucci as a campaign manager who has steered one campaign after another into defeat.

The movie is determined to be bipartisan. It doesn't take sides. Both candidates would sell their mothers to win the election. The opposite is a swing voter. While the table shows how each individual voted in , swing voters are those voting for another party in A second conclusion is that the core and swing voters cannot be distinguished by structural criteria.

Table 5 shows the importance of demographic features for the party alignment of core and swing voters respectively. Finally, swing voters seem to be characterised by a conscious evaluation of government and candidate performance in a sign of relatively ' mature ' democratic voting behaviour.

Nor do men and women differ in the weight of their party support among either core or swing voters. But women are less likely to be swing voters than men, which is also interesting.

It is not, for example, as if swing voters were disproportionately public sector employees. Fourthly, the swing voters' choice of party defies such classification, and seems to depend more on the candidates' performance and on issues, signifying an evaluative and relatively 'mature ' voting behaviour. See all examples of swing voter. These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

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