The Undecided Voter

It is a rare endangered species for 45 months and then with about three months before the election, it creates offspring in the form of attention-seeking animals, which dominate the political world. This specie is the undecided voter. Apparently, the undecided voter has been sent from the election heavens to decide this presidential election. However, political experts and the media are making too much of the undecided voter, because in actuality, the undecided voter most likely has made up his or her mind.

If you watched the last presidential debate on Wednesday night, you definitely know who ‘Joe the Plumber is.’ Even if you didn’t watch the debate, you have to have been locked up in a cage to have not heard anything about him. His name isn’t important, especially since his name isn’t even Joe…it’s Samuel. What is important is the candidate Joe is going to vote for. Right now, he is still undecided which puts him into the category of an undecided voter. Joe the Plumber is one of the people in our world who goes to bed every night not knowing who they are going to vote for.

The undecided voter has been a focus of the election, especially in the debates and polls. Some examples of it being on display is on CNN’s debate coverage with the line at the bottom of the screen that is based on positive or negative feedback from Ohio uncommitted voters, as well as the town hall format for the second debate where every audience member was supposedly undecided. There is also have the post-debate coverage from every station where they get together a group of these undecided voters and ask them if they have suddenly decided who to vote for after the past debate, as well as the polls released right after the debate where the people questioned are those infamous undecided voters.

It’s very hard to understand how someone can be 17 days away from the election and still not know who he or she is going to vote for, but the fact of the matter is that 8% of our nation, according to a recent LA Times poll, is undecided.

However, Barack Obama and John McCain may be wasting their precious time and money trying to sway the undecided voters. The poll put out by the LA Times may say that 8% of our nation is undecided, but Bertram Gawronski, PhD, of the University of Western Ontario, believes the voters just may not know that their decision has been made. "It's not that people are lying to the pollsters, it's that they may not consciously recognize the automatic associations that influence their decisions," said Gawronski.

An example of someone who says he is an undecided voter but when he talks about the issues and what he thinks about both candidates is the aforementioned ‘Joe the Plumber.’ He was interviewed after the debate and said he disagrees with Obama’s tax policy and feels McCain did the best job during the debate. Then, CNN came out with a story today saying McCain has invited Joe to campaign with him. If all of this evidence isn’t enough to sway you to believe Joe has already made his mind, then I don’t know what will.

So while Obama and McCain are spending money on ads being played in swing states and their time in these states, they really should be spending their time getting the 40-45% of the population that is their base to vote. If they spend their resources getting voters to the polls and getting people to register, they would be in much better shape.

So, when you turn on the television tonight or anytime in the next two weeks before the election, don’t be fooled when the media and political experts talk about the undecided voter and how critical he is to either candidate winning the election, because in reality, the undecided voter isn’t as undecided as he is made out to be. In conclusion, the undecided voter will rule the media for the next few weeks but after November 4th, it will become just another endangered specie until 2012.