WP: Stuck on The Fence - Undecided Voters Reject Much of What They Hear

[kskiska]

ERIE, Pa.

A warning to the presidential candidates seeking to court swing voters: This election year, some swing voters are swinging back.

As evidence, consider 10 uncommitted voters who live in this battleground city in this battleground state. Pulled together in a focus group, they were in a decidedly contrary mood after hearing both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry accept their parties' presidential nominations.

In the next two months, these voters want the candidates to drop the flags, fireworks and florid freedom talk -- we're onto that game. Lose the negativity. More specifics, fewer ads -- and more debates.
And please: Beginning right now, start talking about something other than 9/11 and Iraq.

(snip)

"I don't want to see four more years of 'Let's fight terrorism, let's fight the war,' " said Rick Dudek, 45, a truck mechanic. "You have to start taking care of other business here."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64440-2004Sep5.html

[progressivebydesign]

1. "It's (STILL) the economy, stupid!"

Those words were what put Clinton in office. The question just BEGS to be asked again, "ARE YOU BETTER OFF NOW, THAN YOU WERE 4 YEARS AGO????" Needs to be asked in Kerry's campaign.. because THAT is what will put him over the top. Forget everything else.. do you have health insurance? Did the cost go up? Did your property taxes go up? DId you school district cut teachers and other employees? Did YOU get laid off? Are you working again? Does your library now operate on a short schedule? What does food cost you now? How about gas? How's your stock portfolio? Did your tax cut really amount to anything? Oh, and DEFICIT DEFICIT DEFICIT.. etc.

[PartyPooper]

2. Some of these "UNDECIDEDS" are constipated!

Tell them to take a really good sh*t and come here to DU for some truth and enlightenment!

:hurts:

:kick:

[nosmokes]

3. wouldn't it be grand if they were heard?

and bushco stopped slinging shit and we could start talking issues? not that i'm holding my breath, but wouldn't it be grand?

[Nashyra]

4. Well if the press would report

what Kerry was actually saying on the campaign trail instead of the pundits giving their biased opinions Kerry would be ahead by lanslide margins. These undecideds just seem to lazy to read what is on the websites. They can go to both and just reading the *' know he is lying because it is the sme old shit and they know it's not true because the economy, health care, oil prices etc are in the toilet.

We know where the bulk of the voting public are by the ratings of Survivor and such. Maybe a little C-SPAN or the Lehr report would help. Sorry Survivor fans.

[Kimber Scott]

7. The pundits say Kerry isn't saying anything. I'm waiting for one

talking head to call them on it. Just one. It would be nice. Just ONE.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. These "undecideds" are bogus pains in the asses

They probably don't vote, or even exist anyway.

[hansolsen]

6. The undecideds won't determine who wins this election. The relative

turnout and loyalty of the base will determine the winner. Right now the Repub base is rock solid in large part because the Kerry campaign braintrust (composed of supporters of the fucking war in Iraq, perhaps???)have cede the high moral ground to Shrub by taking Iraq off the table.

Iraq is Bush's great moral failure, not his competencey failure. We are going to get 60% of the undecides anyway. Stop running the whole campaign to up that a few percentage points. That is at the margin, IMHO.

[TheRovingGourmet]

8. Most of the undecideds I know are just waiting for the debates

before they decide one way or the other.

[T Bone]

11. My prediction: Debate audio will get screwed up a lot when Kerry speaks

if there even are any debates.

I just seem to notice that whenever a clip of Kerry speaking is shown on any channel/network, more times than not, the audio is FUNKY for some reason. Does anyone else notice this? It happens A LOT. I think.

It is not my imagination. They show very little of him. Cut him short. Screw up the audio. And the pundits and the undecideds are saying that Kerry is not saying anything? Well, duh.

The ONLY time I have seen Kerry speaking for an extended time was his acceptance speech. Bush, oh you see him all the time, and the audio is fine.

[Guaranteed]

9. WTF??

These fucking people just don't know what the hell they want.

[yardwork]

10. I'm tired of hearing about undecideds

To an informed person, there could not be a starker choice in this election.

It seems to me that if they are still in the dark at this point, they are likely to be stumbling around in the dark on November 2.