Still Undecided After All These Years

It boggles the mind. As the polls open for the 2008 presidential election after the longest presidential campaign in memory, some voters are still undecided. Who are these undecided voters? Why can’t they decide? Why are 2 years of a non-stop media inundation of information not enough? Listen you undecideds – look back to previous presidential elections. Do you remember such a clear choice between candidates and their positions on issues affecting every American? Don’t you undecideds have a fundamental set of values that guide your political views? Does not one of these candidates fit more with your values than the other? I mean – come on folks – what are you waiting for, a burning bush?!

Or maybe not. According to an NBC poll released this afternoon it seems that the undecided demographic comprises a disproportionately large number of older, white women – hardcore, spiteful Hillary supporters. These voters are taking the outcome of their party’s nomination process personally. (See http://aboutnothing-doug.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-you-too-can-become-sexist.html) These voters are so self-absorbed that, despite being lifelong politically involved Democrats, they are undecided as to whether their hurt feelings are more important than their long held political values. How incredibly petty and pathetic is that?! Barack Obama beat the Clintons. Your candidate has fully and sincerely embraced the Obama candidacy and urged her supporters to do the same. That’s politics – get over it and move on.

Not surprisingly, the McCain campaign is capitalizing on this demographic by running robo-call campaigns today featuring Hillary Clinton’s voice. Call content? Don’t know but an educated guess would be a negative, out-of-context, primary campaign snippet aimed at Barack Obama. That any percentage of this allegedly sophisticated electoral demographic would be persuaded by robo-calls brings me to Jon Stewart’s pie chart of the undecided demographic. By far, the largest segment of Jon Stewart’s undecided demographic pie chart, weighing in at 45%, was the “STUPID” slice.

Unknowns in this election include the 2 overlapping undecided demographics, the Bradley Effect (PC with the pollster and a racist in the booth) and the Reverse Bradley Effect (good ole boy with the pollster and closet Obama supporter in the booth). Without a candidate running at 51+% in a state’s polls, these 4 factors play a potentially disproportionate role in determining swing state results. So what are we left with? Choosing our next president could potentially be left in the hands of Spiteful, Vengeful & Disgruntled (the Hillary dwarfs), the STUPID, the racists (Bradley-E) and the spineless (reverse Bradley-E).

The 2008 presidential race is a unique, historic election for the United States of America, determining its course at a critical juncture in our history. May the American electorate do justice to its place in history.

When Sucking on the Issues, Go Personal

Senator McCain sucks on the issues. Even his “new” idea in debate #2 for the feds to renegotiate mortgages sucks. Here’s why: It’s not new, but part of the bailout bill. Those mortgages would be bought by the feds at their original value, not face value. The banks are made whole by this overpayment. The taxpayers would foot the bill for this classically inane business transaction. His own right wing base hates it. While the latter would usually be a good enough reason for me to support it, not in this case.

So what to do, what to do? Down and sinking in the polls, looking just a bit silly wandering around the debate platform, what is Senator McCain to do? Simple. Attack Barack Obama’s character with innuendo and fear mongering. Barack Obama was born with the middle name “Hussein”. He’d have that name whether he was a garage mechanic or presidential candidate. And what of it? It’s Arab and sounds just a tad “terrorist-ish”. OK, so McCain surrogates now include his middle name when referring to him. Maybe that will attract more enthusiastic McCain supporters screaming “Kill the terrorist!”

Raising the idiotic issue of Obama’s association with a 1960’s domestic terrorist turned college professor is, sadly, the best McCain has right now. That’s his best?! That’s what he has Sarah “6 Pack” Palin shouting about?! Good luck with that one.

Apparently, according to a recently released study, the 1982 based “Bradley Effect” has not plagued Barack Obama – not in the presidential primaries or his races in Illinois. Basically, the Bradley effect is in play when voters tell pollsters one thing and do the opposite in the privacy of the voting booth. Nonetheless, McCain can hope for it to play a role in the election, so how about pushing the Black thing? Remind voters that Barack Obama is a big scary Black man. Appeal to the basest instincts of a slice of the American electorate and hope that racism will turn the election your way. Isn’t that a charming strategy for one seeking to be our next president?!

If it quacks like “same old – same old” it probably is. McCain’s been doing a lot of frenetic quacking.