Newsweek would surely love to cause another huge stir and to enrage the Romneys [with "The Wimp Factor" cover story], but it’s doubtful they would even notice any more.
Well, Jonathan, there's no reason to be unkind.
What you're pointedly saying is that the newsweekly has become irrelevant, which of course it has. But then again so have the daily papers, as well as cable news and the Internet's blogosphere.
On one side of the partisan divide a bit less than half of us already know, and have known all along, how we're going to vote this fall. On the other side a bit less than half already know how they're going to vote. Most states are already decided, with their electoral votes roughly split R vs. D, meaning most states in the presidential election are as irrelevant as Newsweek. That leaves about 5 percent of the electorate in a handful of states who are undecided--a profoundly puzzling and astoundingly high percentage when you stop to think about it, given, that is, that the GOP's candidate is an absolute idiot.
Still, information from the newsweekly or the daily paper or cable news or this or that Web site won't mean much to these uncommitted folks. It never has.
Your post begs an important question. How does the undecided 5% of the 9 or so swing states actually decide for whom to vote? Specifically, what is their logic, and what are their sources of facts for plugginto their logic?
Contrary to the common thesis of talking heads, the candidates present a fairly clear idea of their governing principles and priorities. So, the choice is pretty clear.
One viable explanation is that this 5% simply has not gotten around to thinking about it all.
Posted by: Robert Lipscomb | July 31, 2012 at 08:31 AM
Actually, I am going to run a little counter to this thinking. One aspect of all the polling that is out there that is under reported is the solidity of each candidate's support. From every poll I have seen where that is reported, Obama's "strong" support is pretty much double Romney's.
What this tells me is that a lot of Romney's support is based solely on the fact he is running as a Republican. And a lot of those people still haven't been exposed to Romney like they will once the real campaign starts in September.
In other words, a lot of that support (perhaps another 5% which is significant) could suddenly fall into the undecided territory.
The President's campaign has done an excellent job of placing a ceiling on Romney's support. The next challenge will be eroding some of that shakey support away from him. Those voters don't necessarily have to vote for Obama, just not vote for Romney.
It is interesting that a couple Romney people came out and accused the Obama campaign of participating in voter suppression with the Bain ads. Tells me that they are concerned about the exact same thing and are worried about the lack of "solid" support.
Posted by: japa21 | July 31, 2012 at 09:05 AM
The GOP is an absolute idiot something that is fairly obvious to anyone who is paying attention, including the people that are still going to vote republican. From my small insignificant corner of America known as Riverside County,CA the asshole of America, people here are driven more by hatred of Obama than love for Romney. You will find pro-Obama voters here. You will find anti-Obama voters here. It's the Pro-Romney voter that may be a bit harder to find.
Posted by: AnneJ | July 31, 2012 at 11:14 AM
I think most of the "undecided" vote just doesn't want to talk to pollsters.
Posted by: Beauzeaux | August 01, 2012 at 01:10 PM