The Luntz focus group
I’ve been watching those Luntz focus groups of independents and undecideds for years, and they tend to drive me nuts.
They seem to “focus” on things I find trivial or irrelevant. Their perceptions usually differ tremendously from mine. I don’t ever think I’ve been undecided about a presidential election in my lifetime, certainly not anywhere near close to Election Day. The only thing I’ve ever wavered on at times is who to vote for in the primaries. And even that has usually been a relatively easy task. So I don’t really understand “undecideds.”
That’s why last night’s Luntz focus group astounded me. They seemed thoughtful and articulate. Is that just because they agreed with me, for once? Or was it because there was something about Romney’s performance that spoke to them in particular, something that answered a question they’d been asking without even realizing it? Something, perhaps about leadership?
Yes, some very good comments.
I especially liked the next to last comment in which the guy basically stated that Obama has been protected from questions and has never had to defend his policies.
Just hope more undecideds think like these folks.
I too find that focus groups of undecided always seem mystifying. However, I think this response was almost predictable.
The Obama campaign has grossly underestimated the intelligence of Romney. They created a straw man this summer that was so dismissive and diminishing of Romney that when given the opportunity to see him in a more unfiltered environment undecided voters who have used the Obama campaign to define the man are completely taken aback and surprised by his apparent competence.
The Obama campaign probably unintentionally set the bar very low for Romney. Part of the reason they did this I think was in ignorance. Exampled by their dismissal of the abilities it takes to not only run a business (see: “you didn’t build that”) but how much intellect it takes to create something like Bain Capital.
Too bad the smack down by a far superior candidate will not change the mind’s of people like the tool in the front row with the glasses and the brown sweater.
I was encouraged by the younger lady in the front row. If she truly was undecided before last night and the things like working across the aisle impressed her and moved her to vote for Mitt, he will win.
The Obama/DNC Media Complex narrative has been that the evil Republicans have not worked with him. Not only is it not true, but it is a weak excuse that signals a poor leader. Mitt drove that message home. Hope it sticks.
I too have never understood the undecideds.
But I saw Luntz’ focus group last night and it seems to me that he specifically asked how many had voted for Obama in 2008 and quite a few raised their hands.
Maybe these thoughtful undecideds fall into the “a mind is a difficult thing to change category.”
After all, as has been so thoroughly debated on your blog, the MSM has been propping Obama up and those of us who see him for what he is have had to actively seek out the facts in the conservative blogosphere and elsewhere.
A lot of people are still getting their information mainly from the MSM and last night, for the first time, many saw the emperor in all his naked glory for the first time.
To me, one of the most interesting things several of the people in the focus group said was that they liked how he would work with both Democrats and Republicans to get things done.
I know that too much of that will turn uber-conservatives off but it WILL get Romney votes. I know several people who are independents who have been griping about the “deadlock” in the federal government and how people in Washington can’t work together to solve problems.
His claim (not fulfilled at all) to bring people together (“no red states or blue states”) was one of the big appeals of Obama in 2008.
As I have been noting over the last few days, 2-5% of the voters who have been sitting on the fence have been looking for a reason to vote for someone other than Obama. They now have their reason. The choice is clear Romney of the empty chair.
I was really surprised at how many said that this one debate had changed their minds and made them decide to vote for Romney. In my cynical mind I’m thinking, “Too good to be true”.
I’m 63 and have never registered with any party. I’m an independent, a fiscal conservative, formerly a neocon on foreign policy and probably a libertarian on social issues. I vote based on a persons character and their stand on the issues.
Undecideds are most often people who pay little attention to politics nor educate themselves in depth about the issues. For the majority of undecideds, that’s not apathy, or a lack of principles but disinterest. That’s not a failing because it’s about focus; as in most women are not interested in how cars work, which reflects not an inability to understand but that their focus is elsewhere.
We all have different interests and no particular interest commands the attention of everyone. Politics is just “not their thing’.
I’m very interested in national and international politics, the ‘big picture’ if you will. But I have close to zero interest in local politics, which to me is almost always about ego driven personalities. I almost never watch the local news and it never holds my interest once I grasp what the story’s about.
I’m disinterested in local politics.
My ex loved the local news and had zero interest in national and international issues.
It’s all about what commands our focus and of that we have little control.
For someone disinterested in politics, who lacks the knowledge base to decide, yet senses that Obama’s not getting the job done, while the MSM consistently portrays, mostly through innuendo, that Romney would be worse than Obama…is it any wonder that they’re undecided?
N-Neocon…I saw the focus group of Independents last night, too. And I was struck, as you were, by their reactions and ‘near’ unanimous raves of Mitt’s clarity and ability to articulate his views and bring them over. I’ll be damned. Loved what I saw.
I too have had hope watching the Luntz focus groups only to have my hopes dashed repeatedly.
It is extremely frustrating to watch those squishy non-informed people.
There was one idiot on the Luntz panel last night.
I loved when Luntz asked him a second time, “so you wanted Obama to attack more”… and he paused to let that resonate. 🙂
“That’s why last night’s Luntz focus group astounded me. They seemed thoughtful and articulate. Is that just because they agreed with me, for once? Or was it because there was something about Romney’s performance that spoke to them in particular”
Or could the “focus group” have been carefully selected to put across the message?
If you begin to believe this shite you are in trouble.
Neo, first it was your post on how you hate debates and now this, both of which I could have written about myself.
Get out of my head woman. 😉
What the heck is so hard to understand?
When increasingly all you get to vote for are two corrupt politicians who are variations on the same theme on many (though not all) policies and your choice is always down to the “lesser of two evils” why should it surprise anyone that some people are undecided?
Geoffrey Britian has the best explanation of the “Undecideds” that I think I’ve ever seen.
“Undecideds are most often people who pay little attention to politics nor educate themselves in depth about the issues. For the majority of undecideds, that’s not apathy, or a lack of principles but disinterest. That’s not a failing because it’s about focus; as in most women are not interested in how cars work, which reflects not an inability to understand but that their focus is elsewhere.”
I still think that if these people are still disengaged at this late in the game they should be stripped of their citizenship and be forced to live in some third world toilet of a country. They add nothing to this country.
The comment “they want to have the R’s and D’s work together” is almost a Perot type wish. If only the evil (extremists, bankers, fill in the blank) washington special interests would step away there would be an easy solution to our problems. But when you ask about what that solution should be the undecideds can’t decide.
There’s a line from a song in “The Book of Mormon” musical where the africans sing “the Americans have cure for AIDS, but their saving it for a Latter day”. I think most Undecideds don’t pay much attention to politics, figure they’ve hired these guys to solve it, and that their must be a simple answer/consensus.