What is This Undecided Voter You Speak of?

(from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/10/09/who-are-the-undecided-voters-and-what-are-the-heck-are-they-waiting-for/)

I am sorry, but I just cannot continue wondering about "undecided voters" and what they want. After the second Presidential debate last night, I watched as a group of these voters were asked what they saw and to my complete and utter lack of surprise, they didn't for the most part get it.  One was swayed for Obama and one was swayed for Romney and the others leaning this way or that but still undecided.  When asked questions, I had to wonder if they had  if they had watched the same debate or if they had drifted off into lala land and then pretended to be undecided.

So who are they? According to Reuters, they are likely to be female, white, lacking an education  and making under $25,000 dollars a year or as defined by the Washington Post/ABC poll "they tend to be young, low-information voters who see themselves in the ideological middle — caught between an economy they aren’t happy with and an alternative to President Obama that they also aren't thrilled about."  What is more, no one knows what more they could possibly want to hear to make up their minds.  

For politicians they are an extremely expensive because all the ads are aimed at them.  They are also less likely to make it to the polls which means we've all suffered the ads and billionaires have wasted a ton of money on them.  One of the nicer things they've been called is "low information voters." In other words some of them  may have much in common with a box of rocks. Bill Maher in one of his rants remarked "This year at the debates we should skip that thing where the undecideds dial in their reaction to every little moment, and instead hook up the dial to their foreheads to see if there is any measurable brain activity." Bill Maher is not the only one to take shots at this group.  Saturday Night Live has made a stab at this seeming group of lost and befuddled souls.  In defense, Romney pollster Neil Newhouse referred to them as "Walmart Moms." I am still trying to figure out how that is a defense of being undecided.

Let's face it, this is five or six percent of the voting population just can't seem to sort out anything.  They cannot apparently check Politifact and other sources on the web.  They are confused by FOX and MSNBC and haven't looked at Huffington Post or the Washington Post.  I do feel a bit for them because today's news correspondent seems unable to call out the candidates on the pile of you-know-what that all politicians seem capable of because if they do ask the hard questions they may not get another chance and be accused of unfair bias because they are members of the liberal media or mean or interfering.  

They may be a group of voters though who, depending on which pollster is interviewed, may or may not be worth the expense, time and wooing the campaigns and super-pacs have spent so much time on. These voters may have watched or pretended to watch the debates, but instead of checking to see if the facts were accurate that were spewed out during a debate, they sat there in a lost funk and then announce that the five point thing sounds good or they like the taxing the wealthy  thing.  They have no idea what the 47 percent is or if they heard about it, they didn't really understand it.  They are  the guys who are looking at the style of delivery and not substance.   Here are the Politifact checks for each of the debates thus far.  If you are undecided, at least become less than low information voters.

The first debate is here.

The vice presidential debate is here.

The town hall debate is here.

All I ask, is at this point, could you not wait until the last day before the election and make a choice so the rest of us can give the mute button on our remotes a break?