I feel therefore I vote. McCain vs. Obama. Lessons from 2004.

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Sunday September 28, 2008 · 9:46 AM PDT

2008/09/28 · 09:46

During the last presidential election cycle, I spent untold hours talking to voters while canvassing my precinct, making phone bank calls from the local Democratic Committee office, and talking to colleagues at work. I could talk about all sorts of facts regarding the candidates' domestic and foreign policy positions, voting records, political appointments and stated political philosophy. The partisans on each side either agreed or disagreed with me and went their merry way. No surprise in that. More surprising to me was the reaction of the undecided voters. They weren't particularly interested in or swayed by rational discussion either. In the end, voting for many of them was an emotional decision. They would vote for whichever candidate they just felt better about.

My lesson from 2004: aside from party line voters, voting for many people is an emotional decision. OK, feel free to call me naive.

Watching the debate, from my partisan perspective and believing that I am more rational than emotional, I came away with the perception that Obama ended up more often than not playing defense and responding to questions rather than leading. Like some others, I felt that the debate ended up being a narrow positive for McCain. It appears that what I and other partisans thought really doesn't matter. Many news reports, polls an focus groups from sources across the political spectrum concerning what undecided voters thought, or more importantly felt, is the real story. They apparently didn't like McCain so much, and not because of facts (whether you believe them to be true or false). They didn't like him because of their perception of him as being contemptuous, patronizing, condescending, churlish, disrespectful or grumpy. McCain wouldn't look at Obama and seemed as though he could hardly stand being on the same stage as him, despite the fact that Obama has earned the right to be there having endured a grueling, bruising primary fight. This might be cheered by the Republican base (who will vote for McCain, no matter what) and reviled by the Democratic base (who will vote for Obama, no matter what), but the majority of undecided voters seem to have had an emotional reaction that didn't favor McCain. If McCain generates the same reaction during the next two debates, facts aside, his numbers will slide and Obama will face an easy victory.

But, perhaps I'm just being emotional.

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