What's up with undecided voters?

[Cresent City Kid]

Politicians have to coddle them, but I don't have that encumbrance. What are they so confused about? What do they want to know that hasn't been said?

I've heard some of these voters saying they haven't heard specifics from Obama. I believe this has more to do with their listening skills than Obama's lack of spelling out his plan. He's said it over and over, but since you seem to be deaf let me lay it out for you: IF YOU MAKE $250,000 PER YEAR OR MORE, YOUR TAXES ARE GOING UP. IF YOU MAKE LESS THAN THAT YOU'LL GET NO INCREASE OR A CUT. IF McCAIN WINS, THE RICH WILL CONTINUE TO GET AWAY WITHOUT PAYING THE TAXES THEY SHOULD PAY AND MORE OF THE BURDEN WILL FALL ON YOU!

This is part of an overall strategy of using the tax code to restore fairness, and revenue in this time of ludicrous budget deficits. I don't know exactly why, but when the rich pay their fair share of taxes, the economy does better for everyone, including the rich. That's not good enough for republicans, they want to help the rich at all costs, which is why we see the crisis we have today. The republicans only want to help the rich, everything else is about getting enough votes to make it happen.

This has been the case since, not 1980, but 1890. If you haven't figured that out, maybe you don't need to be voting.

[begin_within]

1. They're probably still undecided from 2000 and 2004.

[Cresent City Kid]

5. Yikes

It's scary how bad the economy will have to get to make people realize that the republicans will tank it every time for their own gain.

Almost as scary as that half-cheney/half-Palin picture. That makes me laugh every time I see it!

[Stardust]

2. Someone said in 2004, there are really no undecideds at this point - they just want the

attention. I suspect that may be true. Next time, I'm going to pretend to be "undecided," too, so I can participate in all those surveys. The CNN meter would be kinda fun.

[BlooInBloo]

3. At this late stage, they're probabaly mostly republicans who are too wussy to say so.

[csziggy]

9. Or Democrats that will not admit they will not vote for a black guy

[elkston]

10. Yep. And they'll constantly complain about not knowing what "CHANGE" is. n/t

[Cresent City Kid]

16. I heard one call in to C-SPAN

A 23 year old African-American undecided voter called in after the last debate complaining that Obama didn't make the case for him. Again, the charge was "not being specific." Does he want full transcripts of every bill Obama will introduce to Congress?

[csziggy]

18. Low information voters who are getting their "news" from Faux Noise or Rush

Because if they have been paying attention, Obama is giving more details on his plans that McCain does.

The other part is Obama does not get down to the exact details. As he said in one of his books, that is why the Clinton Health Care Plan failed. They were too specific and everybody had complaints about those details. Obama knows to get something through Congress it will have to be worked out in committee, sliced and diced and argued over. If he only lays out the broad strokes and guides the process, Congress critters will be able to claim parts as theirs and will work harder to get a bill passed.

[FrenchieCat]

4. Well, if they can find the channels where Obama will be on for 1/2 an hour

on October 29th....perhaps they'll be decided after that.

[Cresent City Kid]

14. I hope so

Obama's in a tough spot in that if he's too specific he's "too prefessorial" and if he keeps it simple, they say he's not specific enough.

There's no pleasing them. They want to hear solutions to complex problems explained in simple terms. When Obama somehow manages to pull that off, they "didn't hear anything."

We have the lead, let's just vote now and give the undecided four more years to study.

[Thrill]

6. I don't believe there are still undecided voters at this point

[csziggy]

12. There are people who will not tell surveys who they are voting for

Or claim they have not made up their minds. Every time I make calls for the Obama campaign I still find some of those as do our door to door canvassers. Being in the Deep South, I suspect closet racists.

[jillan]

7. They saw the movie Swing Vote and decided that should be them.

Seriously - how could anybody not make up their mind and this point?

[elkston]

8. They enjoy sitting in focus groups

and complaining about how neither candidate spoke to them. They all seem to talk a good game, but there are no specifics.

And they NEVER answer the questions.

Q: How can they "speak to you?"

A: Talk about the issues more

Q: Which issues, specifically?

A: The ones I am interested in

[PermanentRevolution]

11. This video pretty much says it all...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YOh-rpvjYg

(Not a Rick-Roll - I promise!)

[No Passaran]

13. The Undecided

[Cresent City Kid]

15. Nice

Maybe a picture with bright colors gan get through to them.

[TheKentuckian]

17. The cry for details is pretty weak

since it usually comes from those who didn't know crap about candidates they voted for in the past and would be really bored beyond imagination if they got hipped to Tsongas level details.

I keep imagining these folks that haven't read a book in 20 years pretending like they are going to be going line by line through thousands of pages of program cuts, budgets and legalese.

what they are doing is trying to find some reason they can sell to themselves and tell other people was the reason for not voting Obama. I think most are losing that battle with themselves and will do the right thing.

[Cresent City Kid]

20. Very good point

The bailout bill went from 3 pages to over 400 in 2 weeks. We generally only know the gist of our laws. We don't want to read a doctoral thesis on sausage making, we just want our sausage!

[ahem]

19. They're willfully ignorant.

They can't be bothered to look for or listen to answers to any questions they might have.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

21. some wait til they get to the voting machine and pick a number