One week to go: Up to 1 in 7 are undecided in Ohio (West / Baltimore Sun)

[struggle4progress]

One week to go
Up to 1 in 7 are undecided in Ohio, a bellwether state still up for grabs, where issues include experience and the economy
By Paul West | [e-mail]
October 28, 2008

... Eric Rademacher, who directs the University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research, said polls indicate that as many as one in seven Ohio voters could change their minds. That group is evenly divided between the candidates and concentrated among those between the ages of 18 and 45, a group that generally favors Obama by a wide margin.

"The key question is whether or not the younger voters turn out," he said. "Right now, we're not seeing that." Obama led McCain in Ohio by 49 percent to 46 percent in Rademacher's most recent statewide survey, released over the weekend.

For some voters who haven't made a final decision, like those who gathered Sunday afternoon to discuss the campaign, Ohio's economic changes seem to have deepened a downbeat mood.

In a windowless room on the outskirts of Cleveland, they used phrases such as "down the tubes" to describe the direction of the country. One man who expressed a more upbeat view acknowledged that he was just trying to be optimistic about the nation's "probably unprecedented" economic plight ...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/politics/bal-te.ohio28oct28,0,5712282.story

[NC_Nurse]

1. I don't understand undecideds at this point. WTF?

[struggle4progress]

4. Imagine that television, radio, a small town paper, and the comments of your neighbors

were the source of all your political information

All of these are highly filtered: the commercial media tend not to report in a manner offensive to their owners or advertisers -- and neighbors tend to have opinions based on preconceived notions and traditional slogans formed years earlier

Most people are likely by now to have heard something about the worst Republican fiascos, but many may not have gotten much info -- and so they may not be in a good position to sort out fact from noise in the campaigns

So the "undecided" may be conflicted: they know there's something wrong, but they're uncertain about exactly what it is

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. What kind of ignorant moron would you have to be to STILL be undecided?

:banghead:

[stoge18]

3. Well if they're ignorant morons....

Thay're likely more in line with the other ignorant morons that turn up at the repug rallies.

I dpn't understand how somebody can not have made up their mind at this stage of the game. What more do they need to see?

[bemildred]

5. No they aren't. Lying to pollsters is sport for some, is all. nt

[madmom]

6. Being from Ohio, this is how I see it. The majority of people living around me are repugs, they hate

what bush has done, they don't like mclame.BUT they just can not bring themselves to vote for 1. a dem or 2. a black man or 3. both. Therefore they are undecided as to what they are going to do, stay home or vote for someone.