Data mining is being increasingly used this election, which makes sense since huge databases exist describing more about our lives than we'd really like to know, and increasingly sophisticated data processing techniques are used to obtain desired information from those data bases.
Here are a couple stories about the use of data mining in the current election:
The Washington Post describes how data mining being used to target unregistered voters, and the Huntington Post describes how the Romney Campaign is using it to target potential wealthy donors.
If you are looking for classes to take that could provide you lucrative skills, I'd suggest statistics.
