Re: Swingers

1

If you have about 15 minutes, listen to the first segment about a doctor in Ohio who can't decide between Bush and Kerry - it will make you want to bang your head against a wall.

And reliving the most frustrating moment of our political lives will be worthwhile because.....?


Posted by: PerfectlyGoddamnDelightful | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 9:33 AM
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undecided voters in the 2004 election

How little attention would you have to pay not to know which side you were on in 2004?


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 9:34 AM
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Someone recently linked to a (TNR, maybe?) story about undecided voters and their level of misinformation. Best example was how one thought Cheney would be great to get us off of foreign oil because of his experience in the oil industry.
Ah, found it. Multiple head-banging opportunities.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 9:38 AM
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1 - Worthwhile because I think it does a good job of showing how the GOP smear tactics worked, even on reasonably intelligent people, so that we can anticipate and better fend off those attacks in 2008.

2 - That's what surprised me. The voter in the third segment is the type of person I would have expected to be undecided in 2004 -- completely clueless. But how the doctor in the first segment, who watched all of the debates and kept abreast of the news and all that, could be undecided? Jeez.


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 9:38 AM
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Shudder. 2004 was a terrible, terrible time. I spent most of it cursing and playing with Legos. I don't just mean on Nov. 5th, either.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 9:49 AM
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4.2 is exactly the sort of thing that can drive me towards despair for this country.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 9:50 AM
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6: "Drive you towards"?


Posted by: strasmangelo jones | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:03 AM
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And reliving the most frustrating moment of our political lives will be worthwhile because.....?

I think Kerry's nomination was almost as frustrating to me as Bush's reelection itself, either because I'd spent so much time beforehand dismissing Kerry as an unprincipled hack, or because I was convinced there was no way he'd win in the general. From Iowa on it was one long, slow nightmare of inevitability.


Posted by: strasmangelo jones | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:08 AM
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The voter in the third segment is the type of person I would have expected to be undecided in 2004 -- completely clueless. But how the doctor in the first segment, who watched all of the debates and kept abreast of the news and all that, could be undecided? Jeez.

I'm sure he sometimes wonders what the most important issues are, but the media never tells him, so he figures there aren't any.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:10 AM
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7: I'm saving the last few small steps for any possible meltdown in '08, in which case I give up. Not that I wasn't close in '04.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:12 AM
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A White Bear: unusually precocious? or neotonous?

4.2: I think it's an indication of how little information is conveyed in those media.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:15 AM
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12

Shouldn't the "illustrating" in the post be "illustrative?"


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:15 AM
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2: I was undecided for almost all of 2004. And I think I paid very close attention.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:16 AM
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13 is the kind of thing people say when they forget about the importance of judicial appointments.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:18 AM
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13: Did your views on abortion play into that? From what you've said, that's a big deal for you, but it splits you politically from most people you'd otherwise agree with. That doesn't make you an idiot, just conflicted in an unusual way.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:20 AM
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Most salient question in response to this post: Do you have old episodes of TAL saved on your portable media player of choice, or did you download it while at the gym using some kind of new-fangled technology?

13: What factor eventually led you to decide?


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:24 AM
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17

15: yes, I suppose. And now that I think back some more, I don't think I was really that undecided, at least not in the conventionaly sense--I just disliked both candidates. Most of my indecision was related to whether I should vote for Kerry or should not vote at all. I don't think pulling the lever for Bush was ever a realistic option.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:25 AM
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17 makes sense to me; this administration had already outed themselves as fuckups, but that didn't mean you had to like the alternatives offered.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:26 AM
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15: I know someone who is mostly a Democrat but is considering voting for Huckabee because of the abortion issue. She's Indian-American with HIndi parents, but she converted to Roman Catholocism.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:26 AM
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That doesn't make you an idiot, just conflicted in an unusual way.

Every thinking and politically aware person in my family who has stayed in Missouri is conflicted in exactly this way. (Mostly lined up with the left, but ends up voting on the abortion issue.)


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:29 AM
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19./20 doesn't really describe `undecideds' to me, so much as button issue voters who don't really like their options.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:31 AM
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17, 19, 20: My lefty nun aunt was all about Schundler for senate in NJ a few years back for this reason. And this is a woman who lives and works in urban blight ground zero, who has pretty much not a single other shared belief with him.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:34 AM
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16 - Yeah, I have some old TAL episodes saved on my iPod. No newfangled technology.


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:35 AM
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Well, they're undecided in that with recent elections they've been ever more seriously considering not being that "button issue voter".


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:39 AM
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TAL was relatively disturbing last Sunday.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 10:53 AM
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The one about the muslim girl in fourth grade? Yeah.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 11:04 AM
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Raise your hand if you read the post title, read the post, and were disappointed accordingly.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 11:07 AM
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95 % of R's will vote for whoever is the R candidate. Same for Dems. 2/3 of Independents are not Swing voters but in fact vote reliably for one of the 2 major parties.

So about 1/3 of the Independents and 5 % of Registered D & R's are actually Swing Voters and are mostly ignorant of the candidates and parties true records. That's about 10% of the population.

My guess is they will break for the Repub based on the PR campaign and lies that are facilitated by the media.
Not to mention Election Fraud (Electronic Voting, Caging, Uncounted Provisional ballots etc).

And that is why I continue to expect that the horrible Rudy Giuliani will be our next President.

Sad but True.


Posted by: rich | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 12:03 PM
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I'll admit that "you'll want to bang your head against the wall" didn't exactly sell this story. I do recommend it for its fantastic pwnage. So many things like (paraphrasing):

1: I can't bring myself to vote for Kerry, even though I'm pro-choice, for gay rights, and I think Bush messed up the war, because he's too liberal. He's the most liberal person in the Senate!

2: Has he ever voted in a way that was too liberal for you? What positions of his are too liberal?

1: (crickets)


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 1:27 PM
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3: A true classic, and one of the more depressing things I've ever seen.


Posted by: Sharkey | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 2:55 PM
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31: Here was my head-banging, day before the election, suspect we might be screwed moment: A seemingly reasonable co-worker—Agree, agree, agree... "but I've got to vote to protect my little girls." (he had two young daughters).


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 3:38 PM
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32

damn headbangers, punk rock rules!


Posted by: Bryan | Link to this comment | 01- 8-08 4:41 PM
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