In this wwno article here a local sports show host, Marc Hochman, described himself on air during one show as an "undecided voter." Remarking on how the second presidential debate would pre-emt sports coverage, Hochman said that watching the debate "will really decide my vote at this point because I'm one of those undecided voters."
An NPT reporter, listening to the sports show at the time, was incredibly curious. When Hochman was interviewed by NPR afterwards, he admitted that he was a "Democrat" and was planning to vote for Obama. As a sports show host, Hochman knew his audience (white middle-class males between twenty-five and fifty years old) and did not want to alienate them by admitting he would vote for the Democratic ticket.
This may sound like anecdotal evidence but it fits with what I've been observing here in Florida concerning white, middle-class men who have a secret tilt towards Obama.
As an EMT student I sometimes do ambulance ride times. The fire stations I do ride times at are teeming with Romney's voter base: white, middle-class men who are not college-educated and are somewhere between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-five. The first station I was at in Okeechobee had a fire chief that was quietly, but definitely, for Romney. He told me with a polite smile that he thought Romney looked more presidential during the debates and was generally a better candidate. I said okay, but as soon as the chief left the fire house kitchen I noticed that all the other fire men would secretly give me thumbs-up or wink at me when they saw my "Obama/Biden" sticker on my notebook. I like to think that this was because I'm incredibly gorgeous (snark) but actually it was because the majority of fire men at the fire house were secretly pro-Obama. Romney has made it plain that he believes the nation has "too many firemen" and plans to cut back in that department should (God forbid) he ever become president. Firemen and policemen don't want to be unemployed so a surprisingly large proportion of them are tilting towards Obama. They keep their mouths shut however, because they don't want to piss off their bosses or Romney-supporting friends.
I'll just mention here that Okeechobee is usually a pretty red district (it went for McCain in 2008 though the entire state of Florida went for Obama).
Still, one fire house full of Democrats? An outlier, right?
Turns out, not so much... or at least not so much in my experience. My second ambulance ride time was at a fire house in Indiantown. The fire chief there was a woman (a rarity at firehouses) who had been a fireman (fire-person?) for over twenty years. She had a strong personality and was just strong in general. I had no doubt that she could haul a 220 pound guy out of a burning building. Still, dispiritingly, this woman was a huge Republican. Her car was covered with Allen West stickers and she even had photos of Allen West that she had taken at one of his rallies. Never mind that West had repeatedly said that women like her were worse for the country than Al Qaida... West had her vote.
Still, like in the Okeechobee fire house, the Indiantown fire house had the firemen (white, middle-class men) being politely deferential when their boss expressed pro-Romney opinions. Whenever she left the room and we watched TV between calls, the firemen's conversation were distinctly anti-Romney, I noticed. When footage of Paul Ryan at an Ohio rally came on, one guy snorted, "Didja see those stupid photos of Ryan working out with those 15-pound weights? It's like, Dude. That's a fifteen-pound weight! Seriously?"
"Aw, yeah!" another guy said, "Romney's like, 'Guys! You're all f*in' fired but check it out! My running mate lifts!'"
Footage of Chris Christie came on at a Hurricane Sandy press conference. "Look at that fat f*!" a third guy said, "He's gonna f*in' eat that microphone!"
I laughed. "So who are you guys gonna vote for?"
The firemen looked at me, shrugged and didn't answer... but I seriously doubted that they were gonna vote for Romney. They weren't talking like Romney voters.
What do you think guys? Are there really undecided voters out there?... or merely Obama voters who are playing it close to the vest?