Did you see the focus group last night?

[bush equals idiot]

What a crock with the polls that show Bush leading. More of them were "somewhat committed" to Kerry, "committed" to Kerry or waiting to hear the debates. Even those leaning Bush except for 1 guy was open to changing their mind.

It's so laughable though to hear the robot like mentality statements of what they've heard somewhere. I'm concerned about the issues...they haven't talked about where they stand on the issues--he's flip-flopped on all the issues. If I hear the word issues one more time, I'm going to throw a hammer through the TV.

But they proved Bush has only got what per cent he's got now, because the 45% Republicans wouldn't care if there was a picture of him with his arm around Hitler. They're cemented into stupidity.

This group proved exactly the way the rest of the country is right now. And COME ON DEBATES!!!!

[MichiganVote]

1. Some people are stuck on 9/11 and it dictates their thinking

[graywarrior]

2. I had to turn it off

I get embarrassed for the stupidity of Bush supporters. Their logic isn't.

[Fridays Child]

3. One woman said that, even though she didn't like B*sh, she was...

...voting for him, anyway, because she doesn't know where Kerry stands on anything.

:nuke:

[bush equals idiot]

6. Yeah

And one of them said if Kerry were to come into their house, they would find him arrogant and cold.

Guess they didn't remember that he's the one that gave mouth to mouth to his daugter's hamster to save its life.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Aaaack! Never thought of it before, but did Kerry open himself to

charges that he blows hamsters?

[deckerd]

15. Some people are saying these things, that Kerry is a hamster-lover

There must be some truth to the assertion that he saved a colleague's life on Capitol Hill. Maybe he lied about that, too. ;-) Maybe they're secret lovers!

As for polls and such, I agree Kerry is bouncing back, but if the media makes everyone think Kerry lost the debates it could hurt regardless of how bad the expectations are for Bush, because alot of people don't watch the actual debates anymore. This is what happened to Gore. It may all come down to turnout, though I would prefer some obvious sense that the polls are wrong I do not see that.

Rather, it seems like more of the people being polled are calling themselves Republican after the convention, and they're simply exaggerating a stable 4% bounce that Kerry will have to overcome thru turnout. Perhaps there was a much more strong emotional response to Schwarzenneger's response than we'd like to think. :shudder:

[high density]

4. These people didn't know who Kerry was at all

The funniest thing was the woman wanting the media to do more positive coverage on Iraq. Time Magazine's Joe Klein said afterwards that there weren't many positive things going on to cover! I thought it was just a great example of people buying into *'s endless optimism without taking the time to find out what's really going on.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

5. It was fascinating

I've spent a good amount of time sitting on the dark side of the mirror and I thought it was very well moderated, though I took issue with some of the questions they pursued.

I tuned in late so I didn't know the makeup of the group until the end. At first I thought they had Bush supporters only, then I thought they were undecideds. At the end the moderator said the group was 1/3 Democrats, 1/3 Republicans and 1/3 independents.

There were two guys who wouldn't sway - that idiot Frank and the one John who said, when asked what advice he would give Bush, said that his opinion didn't matter, that the president needed to do what was right. He said "right" so often I knew he capitalized it in his mind. He also said Kerry had to show him he had "core values," fundie code if ever I heard it. And there was a woman, Jennifer, who was a Bushbot simpleton.

But all the other women were very critical of Bush. And while I was surprised that Iraq was a bigger issue to most than jobs/economy, I was pleased that all but those three people I mentioned had serious doubts about the war, and did not link it with 9-11.

Here's the part that made me angriest. After the participants left, the moderator had a discussion with the reporters who had watched the group. And one after another they bemoaned the fact that so few of the people knew anything about Kerry's positions on the issues. Oh dear, they mused, Kerry's campaign just hasn't been very effective. Well, WTF, you stinking media whores, could it be, could it possibly be that YOU share a lot of the blame for that? Not a whisper of a suggestion of that possibility was raised. I can only hope they were thinking it, even if they didn't have the nerve to say it.

C-SPAN will be airing the group again tomorrow, I think at 4pm EST.

[bush equals idiot]

8. Right

And isn't it hillarious that the one strong female Bush lover, when they were asked to write down the first picture that comes into your mind when you think of Bush.

And she says a picture of him in his cowboy boots and overalls. Yeah that's what we need in a President.

[napi21]

7. Isn't the moderator of this focus group a proclaimed Pug?

I didn't see the one last night, but there's one on Sun on csoan at 4PM EST that is moderated by Peter Hart. Perhaps you will hear something a little different on that one.

[Pirate Smile]

10. The one last night was the moderate by Hart.

[Pirate Smile]

9. Here was our discussion of it last night.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x895560

[Leilani]

11. What really makes me mad is the folks who dont know

what a candidate stands for. Here is a person who has never watched C-Span, does not read newspapers, never used a computer for news, or to do research.

But the candidate OWES info to these people? Its like they want Kerry to go to their house & sit down & talsk to them for 2 hours.

This is part of the: its not my responsibility people. If you are going to vote, you darn well need to know what you re voting for or against.

Stupid, stupid people.

[napi21]

12. You're kidding yourself. Most people don't pay any attention

to anything but the commercial that sneaks inbetween their reality show! That's why all the candidates spend so much money on TV ads!

I watch cspan all the time, and NOW, and Frontline, but my husband doesn't! He responds to what I constantly bitch about, and what I relate to him makes sense, and is relative to our lives, so he's voting for Kerry.

I'm not nieve enough to believe the same thing doesn't happen in a lot of other homes in this country. But there also lots of homes where nobody watches news, or political broadcasts of any kind. Those are the people you get to at work around the lunch table, or while you're bowling, etc.

[bush equals idiot]

14. And these people actually believe they could not be informed.

They actually believe that with six months of nothing but the election talked about for the last six months, that they had no way to find out what the candidates positions are.

They are really mind boggling. And they wonder why polls are all over the place?