The Undecided voters will decide the election

While Barack Obama has a comfortable lead in the latest national polls, the number of people voting undecided or unsure is at a high rate in some key states, and that really worries me as a Obama supporter. Take a look at the percentages of voters undecided in the key battleground states.

Obama has a 1o point lead in Pennsylvania, but their is 9% gap of undecided voters. In Ohio, Obama has a 8 point lead, but a 9% voted undecided. Florida, Obama has a 7 point lead, but a 9% undecided. These percentage of undecided voters are the same at the key states. That is big margin especially within a week to go before we go to the polls. However, with these undecided percentages in place, can we really trust the national polls at this point of the campaign? Does it really give an indicator on who going to win the election? Remember Al gore had these similar types of leads in the polls in 2000. The result, George W. Bush won the election in a more controversial fashion.

Now, i am not saying that Obama will have a similar result in 2008, but the election itself isn't going to determine who wins the battleground states. It is how much of a turnout the undecided voters will have on election day, and most importantly who they are going to vote for McCain or Obama? These are the people that are really going to determine the election. Some of these voters are gonna vote for Obama because of McCain pick of Sarah Palin and her inexperience at Vice President. On the other hand, they could also vote for McCain because they think Obama is too inexperience and they do not like Obama tax plan (A.K.A "Joe the plumber route") or they just do not want a black president. I don't know!! They are undecided, they can change their minds on anything. But as scary as it sounds, they will probably be the difference for the candidates to get the 270 electoral votes or not, and it could tip a typical blue state into a red state and vice versa. Then again, they might not have a major turnout, and the national polls could reflect on the outcome of the election.

So students, while you go cast your vote for your candidate and watch the election results unfold on television, just prepare for the unexpected such as voting fraud in swing states, Obama winning Virginia, and McCain winning Pennsylvania, because its likely that the undecided voters played that major role in determining the 44th President of the United States.

Focusing on the Negative

Last night was the final presidential debate (here is a link to the transcript if you somehow missed it: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/16/politics/2008debates/main4525254.shtml), which the major news organizations are calling a win for Obama. I wasn’t too excited going into the debate, I felt that I had heard all the information the candidates intended to give and that the only thing that might change was that they might act in a more aggressive fashion. While I was right in regards to Senator McCain’s conduct (Obama chose instead to treat McCain as a doddering old man), Bob Schieffer surprised me by asking new and interesting questions. The one I found most interesting moment to be when Bob Schieffer called both candidates out on their use of negative campaigning after saying they would not. Both candidates gave rather lame explanations for why they did it: McCain says he did it because Obama refused to do what McCain wanted, Obama responded that American’s simply expected their campaigns to turn negative. I found Obama’s statement troubling, because I think he is right. I don’t believe it is possible for a presidential candidate or someone aiming for any political position to win an in today’s current political atmosphere without resorting to negative campaigning, because despite all that is said against it, negative campaigning works. People deny it all the time, saying they only care about the issues, but just listening to the ads starts affecting how we look at a candidate. And if this article is any indication (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/904a9f24-9baf-11dd-ae76-000077b07658.html) we’re only in for more.

Who has a better energy plan Obama or McCain?

Energy Sites:
Obama
McCain

Judging from the sites above, Obama has a better energy plan than McCain. I believe that energy is the most important issue in this election for it affects many other parts of the United States and the world. Money is being drained from our economy every day to foreign countries that we purchase oil from. The United States has the resources to develop green energy technologies and we need a president that will make that happen. If we develop and practice green energy technologies we will keep our money at home and pull in money from other countries when we sell our technologies.

I think we should drill domestically, but not invest a lot of money in it, since we are planning to switch over to green energy. Palin is bragging about Alaska’s oil but guess what, in order to have access to it, we have to pump through this huge oil line that was extremely expensive to build. McCain policies on oil seem to be in the hands of the public, tax breaks if you own a hybrid car or contests for a new battery. McCain also supports alcohol based fuel which is also a lost cause, these fuels have to be mined and farmed making them not efficient. Obama’s policies on oil sound as if they are using oil as a crutch until they are able to switch over. This is the right attitude as long as we do not linger.

Obama wins greatly over McCain in the department over housing energy and so forth. McCain wants to support Nuclear Power Plants and “Clean” Coal Plants, this is just stupid talk. To mine for Uranium that fuels Nuclear Power Plants is not energy efficient at all and then they got to find a place to store the nuclear waste. Clean Coal Plants still are bad for the environment just not as bad as the regular coal plants. Obama wants to rely more on solar and wind power energy. Both of these energies are very efficient because they have no wastes and do not require resource intensive farming or gathering.

Overall Obama seems to have a better idea on how to make the United States more Green and energy dependant. I think the candidates need to stop worrying about their voters feelings and act like a leader. Presidents recently have been wiped by the public and the media. I believe people will not change there wasteful habits unless forced to, we are all to busy worrying about our own lives to know or do what is best sometimes. And we need a leader that will pass laws and setup programs that promote clean energy and a greener lifestyle. We need a leader that will slap us in the face and give us a wake up call and let us know what needs to be done. Becoming energy dependant on clean energy will strengthen our economy by keeping and pulling money into our country.