I'm a still-undecided voter, and no I'm not uninformed, and the vibe in here still strikes me as two or more of the creepiest echo-chambers on earth.

Most boring of all is the "undecided voter" meme.

You buried the lead, and rightly so.

Pass.

I'm a still-undecided voter, and no I'm not uninformed, and the vibe in here still strikes me as two or more of the creepiest echo-chambers on earth.

Odder still is the number of dedicated, dispassionate baseball-minded folks who in a 30-day analysis might well celebrate a new finding.

As to the guys themselves, in terms of thumbnails, Obama is basically a pontificating professor and Romney is basically a cold-blooded CEO. Both of them are smart, competitive guys and both appear to be self-disciplined, relatively quiet-living family men when the cameras are off.

If you are fed up with the whole two-party system, there is no shortage of guys here who will be happy to explain to you why you should vote for Gary Johnson, and you might even find someone who will tell you why you should vote Green.

Now I am even more confident that Obama won the debate and Romney's Benghazi attack hurt him badly.

In unrelated news, the Taliban is upset that they are getting bad press coverage in Pakistan after attempting to murder a 14 year old girl. They do not deny that they attempted to murder a 14 year old girl, rather they claim that press coverage that so much as implies that attempting to murder a 14 year old girl may be a bad thing is BIASED...

There are differences but i don't think it takes six months or more to come to a decision. Neither candidate has said anything new in the last four years.

What actually happened was that in 2002 -- prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration -- a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.

They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.

I have written about this before, in various contexts; tonight I've checked with several people directly involved in the MassGAP effort who confirm that this history as I've just presented it is correct -- and that Romney's claim tonight, that he asked for such a study, is false.

I will write more about this later, but for tonight let me just make a few quick additional points. First of all, according to MassGAP and MWPC, Romney did appoint 14 women out of his first 33 senior-level appointments, which is a reasonably impressive 42 percent. However, as I have reported before, those were almost all to head departments and agencies that he didn't care about -- and in some cases, that he quite specifically wanted to not really do anything. None of the senior positions Romney cared about -- budget, business development, etc. -- went to women.

Secondly, a UMass-Boston study found that the percentage of senior-level appointed positions held by women actually declined throughout the Romney administration, from 30.0% prior to his taking office, to 29.7% in July 2004, to 27.6% near the end of his term in November 2006. (It then began rapidly rising when Deval Patrick took office.)

Third, note that in Romney's story as he tells it, this man who had led and consulted for businesses for 25 years didn't know any qualified women, or know where to find any qualified women. So what does that say?

Is "undecided voter" a term of art restricted to "definitely voting for the Republican or the Democrat, not sure which?" Because I would think the majority of undecided voters are either choosing between their preferred R/D candidate and their favored minor candidate (Green, Libertarian, whatever), or choosing between their preferred R/D candidate and staying home.

Anyone who thinks there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats definitely needs to go in for an overhaul.

To try to comprehend the Romney team's decision to pile on Libya, I think you have to think about where they stand. For the time in generations the Democrats poll better on national security. Their primary line of attack on this front has been Iran, but pushing that apparently hasn't worked or creates fear of another war, because they've softened this, so they don't have much to work with.

I'm not sure the best way to approach a conversation with a self-identified undecided voter is to tell them they're idiots for not having decided yet.

Romney also brought up Syria, which baffles me, I mean Syria? I would think that the average person on the street's response to Romney is, "What? You want us to go into Syria??? Syria? no effing way"

Is "undecided voter" a term of art restricted to "definitely voting for the Republican or the Democrat, not sure which?" Because I would think the majority of undecided voters are either choosing between their preferred R/D candidate and their favored minor candidate (Green, Libertarian, whatever), or choosing between their preferred R/D candidate and staying home.

Mitt Romney snorts coke off of Ann's ass while being blown by illegal immigrant house cleaners.

There was some administration dissembling in the wake of the Libyan consulate attack (nothing like some of Bush's Iraq whoppers though)- but Romney's tactics in response are just so awkward that he's blown whatever advantage he may have hoped to gain, and he's still digging.

i understand that this post will likely be perceived as me advocating for bankruptcies which is not the case. i just think bankruptcy as a 'tool of last resort' should be afforded to all organizations that accrue excessive debt obligations.

And while the Dems "do not relish and revel in evil" as a party to the extent the Repubs do, Obama certainly does. If anyone has contempt for the Constitution, its Obama. He has a ####### kill list for ##### sake.

I can see how someone would be undecided pretty easily: Obama's economics sucks and Romney's social issue/religious love affair with the far religious right sucks.

I think bankruptcies are an important economic tool too, but what I was hoping for was that someone might question why entire cities were going bankrupt, when the country is leaving pervasive fraud on Wall St. unprosecuted, and spending five times more on their military than the next closest country. How a campaign can carry on without these questions being asked by the media should be a smack upside the head for anyone with a brain. I can understand the idiots who think accumulating free cell phones from the government is a good way to spend your time being incurious, but you guys should know better.

In truth, most of these issues are trivial when you look at the overall picture.

Because the large majority who wants to ditch it cares far less deeply than the small well organized lobbyisted-up minority who benefits from it and wants it kept at all costs

Wal-Mart is also not unionized, that isn't proof that the workers wouldn't like to be operating in a union.

Obama has continued and accelerated Bush's reprehensible drone warfare. Who among Bush's critics is faulting the Nobel Peace laureate for killing and terrorizing civilians and then labeling them enemy combatants on policy not evidence? This is going to only breed more animosity towards the US.

2) Electing one party over another does not measurably increase the odds of radical, transformative social change

New residential construction starts surged 15% in September to their highest annual rate in more than four years, as the housing sector continued to show signs of a burgeoning rebound.

The number of new privately owned housing units that began construction was up for the third straight month, and rose in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 872,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

The figures surpassed economists' expectations of about a 770,000 annual rate.

September had the best monthly performance since July 2008, when housing starts were on an annual pace of 923,000. Compared with last September, new housing starts are up 34.8%, the Commerce Department said.

I think the path of certain social issues (abortion, gay rights, immigration) can definitely have their trajectory changed by choosing one party over another. While the enactment of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" was by Democrat president, I don't think there is any chance that a Republican president would have struck it down in the next 2 or 3 terms of office.

Obama has continued and accelerated Bush's reprehensible drone warfare. Who among Bush's critics is faulting the Nobel Peace laureate for killing and terrorizing civilians and then labeling them enemy combatants on policy not evidence? This is going to only breed more animosity towards the US.

What's the alternative though (to 'reprehensible drone warfare')?

What do you think Obama should have done that would result in full employment (or at least below 7%), a lower deficit and continued low inflation?

he wants a candidate who will fix the budget, lower his taxes, increase his medical care coverage, beat the terrorists, and bring our boys back home.

What's the alternative though (to 'reprehensible drone warfare')?

Not doing it. If your assumption that killing people right now in this far away place is needed then drone attacks are perhaps on the table as a lesser evil. How about no evil though. the object lesson - don't attack the US directly or allow safe haven to those who will, or the US will invade your country has been pretty well laid out there (whether this is the right object lesson is a different discussion), what purpose are we serving by staying?

Using every possible method of war (including drone attacks) we are not going to kill everyone who hates the US unless we kill everyone there. So what are we accomplishing?

The issue at hand is whether the attacks in Benghazi themselves were referred to as acts of terror within 14 days. That last sentence doesn't do that.

Let me say at the outset that obviously our hearts are heavy this week -- we had a tough day a couple of days ago, for four Americans were killed in an attack on our diplomatic post in Libya. Yesterday I had a chance to go over to the State Department to talk to friends and colleagues of those who were killed. And these were Americans who, like so many others, both in uniform and civilians, who serve in difficult and dangerous places all around the world to advance the interests and the values that we hold dear as Americans.

And a lot of times their work goes unheralded, doesn’t get a lot of attention, but it is vitally important. We enjoy our security and our liberty because of the sacrifices that they make. And they do an outstanding job every single day without a lot of fanfare. (Applause.)

So what I want all of you to know is that we are going to bring those who killed our fellow Americans to justice. (Applause.) I want people around the world to hear me: To all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. It will not dim the light of the values that we proudly present to the rest of the world. No act of violence shakes the resolve of the United States of America. (Applause.) -Obama, per "Remarks by the President in Golden, CO", delivered on 9/13/12 (i.e. the day after the Rose Garden speech)

does anyone think that other than a few political junkies folks would sit through the 5 odd hours of a lincoln-douglas type debate?

That doesn't just describe undecideds, it describes just about everyone

What's the alternative though (to 'reprehensible drone warfare')?

Drone war is bad, and a black mark on Obama's record, but as with the War on Drugs, anyone who thinks the Republicans would be any better on the issue is nuts

The issue at hand is whether the attacks in Benghazi themselves were referred to as acts of terror within 14 days. That last sentence doesn't do that.

Ahem.

Ha, just kidding! Nobody with those beliefs will ever be allowed within 30 feet of a microphone!

does anyone think that other than a few political junkies folks would sit through the 5 odd hours of a lincoln-douglas type debate?

Drone war is bad, and a black mark on Obama's record, but as with the War on Drugs, anyone who thinks the Republicans would be any better on the issue is nuts.

This.

But you were OK with it when the Dems went that same route in the 1970's?

no act of terror will go unpunished....No act of violence shakes the resolve....

The constant personal stories from people Obama and Romney met on the campaign trail - even assuming they're not fictional - are also silly. It's a small sample size of one, and basically amounts to proclaiming that Eduardo Nunez is better than ARod because he homered off of Verlander last night.

Is an "act of terror" the same as an "act of violence"? If no, then the President did not label the Benghazi raid an act of terror -- he merely left that as a possibility as against some other act of violence.

Airlines are never really "solvent"; essentially they exist in perpetual bankruptcy. They go into bankruptcy, shed the onerous labor contracts that put them there, come out, are more competitive than the other airlines who have been out of bankruptcy for longer, are profitable for a couple of years, enter back into labor contracts that they know will render the company insolvent unless growth is in the 80th percentile of projections, start losing money again, then a few years later, file, reject the contracts, rinse wash repeat.

But you were OK with it when the Dems went that same route in the 1970's?