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COLUMNISTS
TODAY'S STORIES
07.10.2008
The Undeciders

Having arrived home from a screening just in time for the famous CNN focus group of undecided voters, I can only say that it is a strong candidate for the least elucidating form of debate coverage available. Though the media loves to present them as unbiased judges weighing every detail with Solonic precision before making a choice, undecideds are generally low-information voters who haven't paid enough attention to have anything but the vaguest idea what's going on in the campaign at all. The CNN focus group is, by definition, further narrowed down to those undecideds who would like to advertise their lack of knowledge on television. The first few interviewed by Soledad O'Brien essentially offered variations of "I'm not sure I understood what they were talking about" and "All I heard was the same old thing. I want something new."

Taken statistically, the opinions of undecideds are (obviously) extremely important and often quite interesting. Taken individually, as CNN seems to pride itself on doing, not so much.

--Christopher Orr

Posted: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 10:58 PM with 4 comment(s)

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ryanmacd said:

What...idiots. Whoa. Someone is missing a few thoroughly-scraped barrels.

October 7, 2008 11:30 PM

tar036 said:

Thanks Christopher!  I was thinking the same thing when I watched these people on CNN and I'm glad someone brought it up on-line.  These people wanted more specifics?  I think this debate had a lot of specifics.  The one 71 year-old lady was disappointed because neither candidate talked about bringing our troops home from Iraq?  Has she been under a rock for the last 19 months?  Obama spent most of his entire campaign discussing bringing the troops home from Iraq.  

I wonder whether these people are truly undecided or just wanted to be on TV.  I don't know what more Obama or McCain can say to be more specific.  That whole focus group was ridiculous.  

October 8, 2008 12:20 AM

purcellneil said:

I was saying the same thing this morning -- why would anyone watch this kind of post-debate discussion?  

October 8, 2008 12:26 PM

singlespeed said:

I wanted to slap a few of those folks after the debate who said they still didn't know enough specifics or what the candidates plan to do. Tar is right. Where have these people been the last 18+ months? These "undeciders" really come off as the most intellectually lazy people to be polled. Do they not know how to read a newspaper, get on the internet and google "Obama health care plan"?

Last night on the Daily Show they had a great segment on these undeciders called the Stupid Vote.

blog.indecision2008.com/.../the-daily-show-john-oliver-breaks-down-the-stupid-vote

October 8, 2008 1:18 PM