It reminds me of being on jury duty with that one person (or two) who hold the rest of us up while they "make up their mind". LOL. It's almost as if going through a navel-gazing show illustrates that they've given the decision their best effort. It *is* frustrating, but I have to assume that an "undecided" person has to go through whatever thought process they have to go through. No matter how LONG it takes. Oy!

Dog Bites Man, Story at 11.

They've made up their minds. They just want some attention. Funny thing is, I bet they're under the impression that most of us think they're sophisticated because of this.

Nearly all of my undecided friends are people whose political beliefs don't match the two main candidates' at all. (Disclosure: I'm hot for Obama.) Most of them are self-described Libertarians who hate the actual Libertarian candidate this time around.

Did you notice that they took questions from not one but *two* undecided black voters at the debate? Those are even more rare.

indeed, the entire general election has been about coddling the feeble-minded.

as a result, obama can't talk about the nasty medicine we all have to take (no more suburbs, no more RVs, no more killing brown people), lest the undecideds run for the false comfort of the GOP's transparent lies.

and the fact that the rest of the planet thinks we should choose obama makes it more likely that an undecided will break for mccain, just to stick it to those snooty fags in fags, or kenya, or cuba.

off topic:

check out

http://displib.blogspot.com/2008/08/electoral-college-cartograms-r-us.html

representing states sized as per electoral college votes intead of land mass

the wave of blue looks really nice.

And hey, WA is bigger than MN. And way bigger than teeny tiny Alaska.

Down with Mercator, up with cartograms.

Unity--

From my experience volunteering in campaign offices "undecided voters" come in three strains.

The dumb. People who know the truth but are distracted by all the shinny objects, and either won't vote, or won't vote until they are secluded in a voting both away from all the noise. In which case they will vote on any emotional connection to the race, even if its on the last sign they saw before walking into the office.

The uninformed. Some people don't like the news and don't follow current events, but believe they have a duty vote. This group might read up before the election, may use cheat sheets from papers like the stranger, or may be swayed by "voter support" from one or more of the campaigns (mailers, phone calls, ect)

Not really undecided. People who just want attention but all ready have their mind made up. In some cases its that they just don't know who the democrat they are voting against name is. In other cases its a bit more sinister. Like being able to plant questions, ect. Sometimes people just want free food and a chance to meet the canidates.

yeah, I don't get it either...they're either dumb or attention hogs.

About a third of the country are committed Dems/Liberals and about a third of the country are committed (or should be committed) Republicans/Conservatives. Maybe about 10% of the country are real Independents. The rest of them are lazy ass/fair weather voters who only vote if they're riled up enough to do so.

I just think there are a lot of people who are don't know what their values are and don't know how to start connecting them to a candidate. After all, there is such a clear difference between the parties, that anyone who is self aware has had to pick who they will vote for.

I worry about all the people living in our country who can sit threw an election year and not know to apply it to themselves.

*though

oops

I voted yesterday. I live in Indiana, and I voted for Obama, and for the first time in the 23 years I've lived here I feel like my vote actually matters. I felt so proud of the fact that Indiana is actually in play this year, that I had to get out and vote as soon as "early voting" was open.

It's easy to dismiss these late deciders (bear with me) as just another voter contingent driven by identity. They're the perpetual adversaries, clinging to "opposite day" 'til it's final moment.

I'd like to see all of the aggressively cynical stuff stop.

If I were to judge by the erratic CNN on-the-spot polling of undecideds in Ohio during the debate, I'd have to agree the undecideds are the eptiome of the "low quality vote" (to abuse a current buzz word).

There are fewer words more terrifying than "undecided voter."

Or isn't it a contradiction in terms, as in order to vote one must, in essence, make a decision?

Exactly what he said, and what #1 said too. A lot of people have to be on juries and some of the rest of us have to listen to them because they don't understand the evidence. Of course, sometimes the candidates don't mind confused people. Why else would they keep having debates where the candidates are not allowed to have enough time to defend themselves against the other's insults and lies?
There should be a rule on the next one. NO talking about the other guy if the other guy won't be able to tell his side of the story. Don't assume that everyone watching knows everything about both men's records and political careers. But if these Undecideds are waiting for Mr Perfect Messiah on a White Horse to be a POTUS candidate, they will be a skeleton on a park bench before anyone like that ever shows up.

One cool thing about this year is that the usual single issue hot button evangelicals (some of whom I am weirded out to know and sort of respect) are thinking they really can't vote for McCain/Palin, because they actually perceive a bigger moral question than just abortos or homo wedding cakes. They know in their gut Obama is the best moral choice, but they're hesitant to jump, declare, whatever. 10 gets you one they all wait until balloting to decide. It could be a watershed reversal of the way they got played by Republicans for decades. The awesomeness of that possibility is well worth a little poll-dragginess and enforced candidate slow talking.

Sure, that's not the case with all undecideds, and with the others we get to remember that the Constitution thingy lets dumb and lazy people be citizens too, with voting and all. For those of you upthread who think that shouldn't be true, read up on the history of the Nineteenth Amendment and Voting Rights Act, then fuck off.

There's a fourth type of "undecided", especially in Washington state, and that's the Misanthropic Cynical All-Politicans-Are-The-Same-Anyway male blowhard. Yes, this type is always a dude, from my personal experience, who probably dislikes Bill Hicks and Ralph Nader, but believe they both have a point re: politicans looking out for politicians, it doesn't matter, etc..

I'm not undecided, but I can actually empathize with this type of undecided somewhat. I just prefer not to have ulcers, and this time, I feel we finally have a candidate that isn't embarrassing.

It drives me crazy that seemingly every NPR show interviews these idiots every day. What is the point? They have absolutely nothing of interest to say, and they say it over and over again.

I loathe the undecided. If you haven't decided already, just don't vote. Just sit this one out and next time around, pull your head out of your ass long enough to read the paper 1 day a week.

They're the same morons who tell pollsters they hate negative ads and campaigning and then decide based on the dumbest of the dumbest negative ads.

The Daily Show just did a segment on stupid undecided voters:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=187570&title=the-stupid-vote

Dan, are you talking about those undecided voters from Albuquerque on NPR? I was thinking the same thing... "Where the fuck did they get these people?"

#13 has the right idea, I think. A lot of them are just ignorant, but many more of them seem to think they're just really clever for, you know, REALLY paying attention to the issues! and giving each guy a fair shake!

Nevermind that their stances on 90% of issues are so glaringly different, and those are the ideological issues that go back hundreds if not thousands of years.

Case in point: all of these undecided voters who are trying to compare McCain and Obama's bailout plans? John McCain does not want a socialist bailout of our economy, and if he truly does, he's a disgrace to his ideology and a fraud. Either way he's a fraud. If he does anything remotely effective it will be through clenched teeth.

If people want a socialist bailout, they should go with the real deal: the ideology that has always called for checks and regulations on capitalism, ie the people that were correct. If people want someone to handle Iraq, they should go with the real deal: the ideology that has always said the war was wrong and has long called for a pull out, ie the people that were correct.

Conservatism is not correct. It's flailing in the face of modern events, hijacking our principles, and trying to deal with the hard truth that their ideology, left unchecked, is nothing but a giant failure that has to be repaired by "mavericks".

Unfortunately, it's people's lack of basic knowledge of ideology in American politics that causes them to do things like count how many times someone "answered" the "question" or how many times someone placed blame ("I don't want to hear about Bush anymore... that's over") and actually think that's it's an important metric of someone's abilities and credibility in solving the problems we face.

Bingo! Staying "undecided" is a way for the pathetic to get attention.

Enjoy your 15 seconds of fame, dumbshits ...

My undecided friend is torn because she's fiscally conservative, voted for Bush twice, and hates McCain with the passion of a thousand suns. She likes Obama a lot, but lived in Chicago and is skeptical of anyone who's spent time in Chicago politics. He's also "too liberal" for her. Sadly enough, she's also a poli sci major who isn't up to date on current politics "due to being a poli sci major". At this point, I just sort of hope she doesn't vote.

My mother in law is undecided because she won't admit to being afraid that Obama will suddenly let black people run wild in the streets, but she thinks McCain's gonna die soon and she hates Palin.

There is some fuzzy thinking here (and elsewhere) about undecideds. They are not necessarily the same people from poll to poll. As Hopey gains in the polls, more undecideds support him and marginal McNutz supporters become undecided. As Hopey loses, the opposite happens.

I think most undecideds are simply people who are embarrassed to admit they are Republicans.

The far left people I know still think Obama is too conservative and refuse to vote for him (somehow they think their write in vote for Kucinich will get noticed).

However, the far right people I know swung over to Obama last night because of the two, they believe Obama is more a man of his word than McCain and that Obama will cost them less of their money.

@26 Exactly! And can you blame them? All of my Republican family members and friends are much, much less enthusiastic about their candidate than they were in 2004.

I've posted this on Slog before about research by a noted political scientist, Philip Converse, and it's worth a read in all of its horrifying glory. Spoiler Alert: Have a shot ready for when you finish!

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/08/30/040830crat_atlarge

"Converse claimed that only around ten per cent of the public has what can be called, even generously, a political belief system...

...after analyzing the results of surveys conducted over time, in which people tended to give different and randomly inconsistent answers to the same questions, Converse concluded that 'very substantial portions of the public' hold opinions that are essentially meaningless—off-the-top-of-the-head responses to questions they have never thought about, derived from no underlying set of principles. These people might as well base their political choices on the weather. And, in fact, many of them do."

And besides, anyone who works in customer service can confirm that half the American public is fucking crazy.

@22- Thank you for that, seriously.

Maybe it's because Obama is black? I honestly think there's a huge amount of people who won't vote for him because he's black but don't want to say it so they say they're "undecided."

@24. One has to wonder why in the world that woman is a "friend."