While the undecided voters of 2012 are surely not as clueless as the parody depicts, they likely are more apt to know who was last voted off of Survivor or the score of Monday night’s Bears-Cowboys game. These are the people the campaigns are going after in the final weeks of the campaign. The future of the United States is in the hands of low information voters, that will make their decisions for which candidate should lead the nation on anything from a single pet issue to which looked better behind the podium at the debates. The truth is that many undecided voters will decide on anything but substance.
Obama knows this fact of politics. Why else would he take the time to go on The View or opine on the NFL-referee contract negotiations during a week when he could have met with world leaders gathered in New York at the United Nations? Obama’s soft media strategy that political pundits have taken note of occasionally throughout the year is really just a tactic for reaching these voters.
The serious business of the presidency is not the likeliest way to reach and attract the five to ten percent of undecided voters. Consider that Obama has shown little regard this year for the Washington political press. Instead, he has offered interviews to the likes of People Magazine, ESPN and even local shock jocks. His deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter said in August on CNN that these outlets are “equally important” to the political media and “…that’s where a lot of Americans get their news.”
Romney by contrast has not sought sit downs with these outlets. His wife, Ann Romney has largely taken the role of humanizing her husband for the less politically interested. Whether this is an oversight of the campaign or more likely, an understanding that Romney’s persona in these sorts of media situations would not be helpful is unimportant at this late date. It is a fact of the campaign.
This leaves the Romney campaign in a quandary. How can these denizens of Procrasti-Nation be lured to pull the lever for Romney and the undercards of the GOP ticket? But this is looking optimistically at the situation. First, the question must be asked, are these voters “gettable?”
1 Comment
Dominic–
Have you ever considered that perhaps YOUR expectations and views on what diminishes the office of the presidency are…well…only YOURS? You act as if there is a standard that you get to define. I find it hard to believe that a President who identifies with popular culture and uses it to his advantage is somehow “diminishing” the office of the presidency. On the flip side, many would argue that a President isolated from mainstream society and unable to identify to it is actually more demeaning. Obama is perhaps more recognizable and relatable to America’s mainstream because well…he is mainstream. It is not his fault that conservatives continue to elect men of family wealth who grew up like 0.01% of the population. It is your fault.
Its more classic complaints from the hyper-conservatives…where everything from higher education to music and movies are bias against them. Yes the party of equal lots in life and personal responsibility that shamelessly wants everyone to create a separate playing field for them. I find it sad in a way that conservatives have ultimately given up hope of ever evolving their ideology to be more in line with American mainstream society and find it frankly sad that all they will do from here to (eternity?) will be to complain and cry about it.
The truth you will have to face as a conservative if you want any glimmer of hope of ever winning office…is that you cannot simply refuse to evolve. Because like the dinosaurs, you will go extinct. (Oh and first just accept evolution is real).