My Mind's Made Up

This may indicate that I'm closed minded and not open to new ideas, but the truth is that tonight's debate will probably not cause me to vote differently than I intend now. I wonder if this isn't true of most voters, at least those of us who have voted in many elections over the years. If I don't have a pretty good idea of who I favor by now, it would take some startling new information to make me rethink this decision.

I only had one college course in political science but I remember it well. The lecturer was a staff member of the National Opinion Research Center at the U. of Chicago and had a knack of saying things in a way that were memorable. NORC was a fairly young organization in those days. We were told that most people made their judgments on elections from their personal, subjective feelings and tended to believe that most intelligent people felt the same way. In other words, we tend to judge others reasoning on the basis our own thinking. He jokingly said that this was probably true of research centers like his! Adherents of political parties also prefer their own candidates - duh.

The relative ages of the candidates and their choices of veep candidates will be a large part of my judgment as well as the temperament of each of the four people on the ballot. Yes, and my choice happens to coincide with the party I have supported for years.

I suspect this criteria will influence you as well.