The Psychology of the Undecided Voter
“Now a new study examining the psychology of the undecided voter suggests the candidates and their campaigns may be wasting their time and money…
He adds that while the people in the study genuinely believed they were undecided on the issue, at a subconscious level many appeared to have biases that ended up predicting their eventual positions.”

better use biases - it works!

“Psychologists say the research raises intriguing questions about how well people know their own minds. The short answer, they say, is “not very well.”…

Gawronski’s team has found that politicians can sometimes end up subconsciously associated in voters’ minds with the negative images and feelings used in the attack ads”

ads decide, not arguments…

but there is still some hope

“…it may be much more effective to focus on your base by registering as many people as you can and getting them to vote on Election Day.” (The Psychology of the Undecided Voter)

“He who has the last word wins the trial”

(full quote: “He who has the last word wins the trial, and obtains thenceforward a reputable name. An opportunity is here offered of telling very plain and cutting truths, but there must be no mixture of rudeness or passion. The assembled spectators decide the victory, and the parties are in future the best friends”)

clever people, those Greenlanders, huh?? Especially when you consider the first sentence of the paragraph, p. 319: “The Greenlanders are entirely without political control”

i once met persons of Iceland - at university - was so impressed. If you ever want to know how humans should be - visit Iceland. Ok, it surely will have changed since then….

Fat Hubie

Liberals with guns are the future of democracy

the world will be glad to read posts like that, everyone loves to be affirmed

btw:

nice nickname

Perhaps our ignorance of the realities of life in a war zone makes us more vulnerable to being preyed upon with fears of the unknown. We think we can arm ourselves with weapons in our homes to protect from home invasions, while our Gummint reassures us that through surveillance and other abuses of our civil liberties, THEY are keeping us SAFE from terrorist attacks. Many people still buy this bill of goods in exchange for the Bill of Rights.

Mike’s point about what we are willing to label ’sounds of freedom’ is just another example of this ignorance. We mock the Chinese people for not knowing anything about Tank Man at Tiananmen Square, and yet most of our own citizens know nothing about our current (B)administration’s ties to the Oil and Weapons industries. Freedom from reality is not something to celebrate.

what a great post!

So I can’t help but wonder what’s making me so jumpy.

that is easy to answer: intelligence, imagination, empathy

because - honestly…

Russia against Georgia - a war, just some days old - USA against Iraq, a war, some years old - Africa, Asia - regions of permanent wars…

thousands and thousands and thousands of people in constant fear….

We can’t imagine aircraft carriers charging into San Francisco Bay.

as the Romans could not imagine, as the Beijingers could not imagine, as the Berliners could not imagine…

war is like cancer - if you don’t fight it, it will eat you up…

and?

even shiny weapons are made just for one thing: to kill, destroy and maim - no matter, if the victims are just children in a wedding party - or hard working people in offices …

you demonstrate “unfrozen thinking”, not controlled by thought leaders, TV, mass hysteria - brain at work!

I live very close to the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, formerly the Miramar Naval Air Station, in San Diego, and they have been having an air show every year for years. We can always hear the sound of the aircraft, and often see them in the sky. One year I went into the base to see the air show. We see the aircraft performing their acrobatics, and it is always considered to be something that is nice for the public to see.

Many years ago I worked as a Civil Service employee at an Air Force base, and during one of their air shows for an open house one of my co-workers, whom I was riding with to and from work, commented that instead of spending all that money on fuel for air shows, it would be nice if they gave us a nickel raise.

It has always been considered nice to see air shows by our military, so we can see what they are capable of doing.

After our actions in Iraq, in particular, it now seems obscene to call the noise from air shows “the sound of freedom”.