Today, like every Tuesday this term, my fiancee and I have an extremely long day. We are students at Western Oregon University where we are both Sociology majors. Tuesday is usually our longest day because we have two extremely long classes from 4:00-9:50pm. The first class, Social Research Methods, went as planned. We standardized our classroom research project (A comprehensive content analysis of the Bend (OR) Bulletin) codesheet, and he lectured about operationalism for a few minutes. Around five thirty, he decided to let us go early so we could watch the Presidential Debates.
My fiancee and I, since we had to go to our next class with the same teacher in the same room, decided to stay and watch the debate in the classroom with our professor. At first, as we watched the livestream of the debate, it was just me, my fiancee and my professor calmly watching the debate. Slowly, students started to trickle in at around 6:30 for our next class, American Society. At 7:00, not only did we have our regular class, but people from in the building who wanted to watch the last third of the debate but didn't have anywhere to go to do so.
After the debate, my professor decided to do an impromptu "poll of the room". He thought it would be a good chance for the class to understand post-debate analysis. So he asked those of us who were uncommitted voters to stand up. About half the class (I would say about thirty or so in the classroom at this point) stood up. He then said "If you believe Romney won, please sit down"
And this is the good part...only three, out of about 15 sat down. He then went around the room and asked each undecided voter why they chose the way they did and if it would influence the way they vote.
Many of them said that it was the 47% remarks that turn them off to Romney completely. I am now absolutely convinced of the power of that statement. Mitt Romney lost the election in that huge room of wealthy donors in in Boca Raton, FL. In the fervor of the past two weeks I had forgotten about the potency of that remark, but the more I think about it I realize that it solidifies the republican ideological position more than any other piece of political messaging from the democratic party: they are heartless, greedy bastards that would write off 47% (or 30%, depending on which dingbat you talk to) of the population of the United States in a heartbeat. People are REPULSED by these comments, and that closing statement was one hell of a haymaker.
Secondly, one of the biggest dings against Romney tonight (according to our little non-empirical, totally biased poll of the people in our classroom) was the Benghazi exchange. People were stunned, floored, even people who previously LEANED ROMNEY at how much contempt and disdain Romney showed for the office. There was literally an audible gasp when Romney started talking about the whole affair, and a hearty laugh when Obama and Candy Crowley (she absolutely fucking surprised me tonight, hats off to her....can we call this phenomena the Raddatz effect please) proved Romney wrong and shut him the fuck up. People also cited the "You'll get your turn" remark as particularly belittling.
Of those who broke for Romney, two of them said that he would be "better for business", which my Professor, ever committed to the lost art of the follow up, asked them some very pointed follow up questions, which I guess conservatives aren't used to because they flubbed around and sputtered until my professor moved on to the next person. Another person said she was voting for Romney because he was against abortion, which sparked a rousing debate about women voters and the republican party.
Anyway, I only share this because undecided voters aren't all stupid. We had some incredibly intelligent, thoughtful people who saw Mitt for what he really was tonight: a desperate used car salesman who is used to getting his way.