The Dilemma With Undecided Voters

After months of campaigning, the presidential candidates finally faced off on Wednesday during the first of the many debates that aspire to sway the few Americans who are still undecided. This article is intended for those undecided voters, Timothy Egan, a Pacific Northwest correspondent and a national enterprise reporter who has written for the New York Times for 18 years, starts out by stating that “time is up” for the undecided voter. There aren't many, but the fact that the media and the presidential candidates are focusing so much on swaying them to no avail is what seems to be the matter here.  He claims that there is no viable reason for them not to come to a conclusion yet, the candidates couldn't be more different! In his mind, either you side with Mitt Romney (who wants to cut taxes, add to the defense budget and somehow reduce the debt) or Barack Obama (who lowered the unemployment rate and plans to get rid of the policies that put us in this economic state).   The choice is evidently easy but he claims that it’s not that they can’t make up their minds, it’s that they won’t.

The argument appears to be clear: we hate you because you won’t make up your mind; yet beneath that there seems to be a pro Obama message here. While he rips Romney’s ideals he does nothing but praise Obama, it leads one to wonder whether Romney is that bad and Obama that good or whether the author is staying true to the New York Time’s liberal point of view.

Despite the bias, Egan’s argument is successful; it isn't based on his gut or on rumor but actual facts. I looked for the Washington Post poll which he claimed that undecided voters were the least interested in the debates, and saw that a whooping sixty eight percent of undecided voters won’t be watching the debates. After reading this article, I have learned that vast majority of the persuadable voters refuse to watch the one thing that is designed to persuade them and that is a problem, it’s not that they can’t pick a side it’s that they don’t want to. This argument made me understand the purpose of the debates and a bit about how the political world works during the race to the White House. If the undecided voters voted it could affect who wins the popular vote.