The answer: The like-minded liberals running the TV networks and the Obama campaign read the same polls. They show that married people could very well swing the election to McCain.
The Gallup tracking poll for the week that ended Aug. 24 -- just before the Democratic convention -- showed McCain trouncing Obama among married people, 53 percent to 38 percent. That was up from the week ending June 15, when McCain was defeating Obama among married people, 49 percent to 40 percent.
We are often told of the "gender gap" in national elections. Female voters, we are frequently reminded, tend to vote Democratic. Yet, this is not entirely true.
The Gallup poll completed Aug. 24 did show Obama ahead of McCain among all women voters, 47 percent to 41 percent. But among married women voters there was an even bigger "gap" -- and it cut the other way. McCain enjoyed a 10-point lead, 49 percent to 39 percent.
Married people gave George Bush a second term in 2004. According to the network exit poll, Bush beat Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, 57 percent to 42 percent among married voters, and 59 percent to 40 percent among married voters who had children -- call it the "parent gap."
Married voters tend to vote for Republicans over Democrats because married people tend to be more conservative, both culturally and economically, than unmarried people. A 2003 Gallup analysis, for example, showed that abortion was deemed morally acceptable among 36 percent of married people, 38 percent of divorced people, 51 percent of never married people and 52 percent of people living together.
The Democratic polling firm of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner reported this April that "unmarried women are 19 points more likely to describe housing assistance as very important to their lives, 12 points more likely to describe child care assistance as very important to their lives and 10 points more likely to describe raising the minimum wage as very important."
Palin's daughter is keeping a baby and getting married. She appears to come from the America that the Democrats tried to fool last week, not the one they would like to govern.