Voters Resist Labels That Wrap Them Too Tightly

A political scientist at Brigham Young University predicted before the Utah primary that Mitt Romney would get 85 percent of the vote, because Romney is a Mormon and Mormons dominate the Utah electorate. In fact, Romney got 90 percent.

Even within voting blocs, people have diverse reasons for how they vote. Race is not a determining factor for Obama supporter William Poinsette, 43, an African American who is the operations manager for a Baltimore oil company. "I think the media would be surprised how many people are not voting that way," he says. "We look at issues and how it's going to affect our business on a long-term basis."

At an Irish pub in downtown Baltimore, Kofi Otchere, 60, an American citizen born in Ghana, agreed. "Being black is not enough," he said. "We are comfortable with people who look like us. You can't change that. That's part of humanity. But that alone is not a reason to vote for him."

Jud Cairns ought to be easily pegged: He's a software engineer, 50 years old, lives in the Northern Virginia suburbs and drives a Prius, popularly assumed to be the car that screams "Obama voter." But listening to Bill Clinton speak at George Mason University on the eve of the Virginia primary in February, he said he was thinking of voting for Hillary Clinton.

A reporter asked: Are you a wine drinker?

No, he said, a beer drinker, adding for good measure, "Microbrews, of course."

Which confounds everything, just as Obama did when he stumped in Southeast Washington and handed out treats from Dunkin' Donuts, snubbing the scones from the Starbucks across the street.