For months, the Takeaway has been checking in with independents and undecideds, seeing where their crucial votes will land. They’ve seen the political landscape shift with each ad, each debate, and now, a natural disaster. There are some who haven’t made up their minds, and there’s not much time left.
We’re following up with AJ Dellinger from Wisconsin, Julia Pfaff from Virginia, Kim Lobe and Rick Robol of Ohio, Horacio Soberon-Ferrer of Florida, Barbara Dymond of New Hampshire, and asking them where their internal needle landed.
Kim Lobe, a registered Republican who voted for Barack Obama four years ago, says she will be voting for Governor Romney on Tuesday, and that little has happened in this election cycle to change her mind. “I think the things that have happened have probably made me feel even better about my voting for Mitt Romney,” she says, adding, “I’m predicting a big Romney win tomorrow, by the way.”
Julia Pfaff, though also somewhat disappointed in Barack Obama’s last four years as president, says she doesn’t want to reward Republicans for their obstructionist behavior in Congress. “While I don’t feel that President Obama has been as strong a leader as I would’ve wanted him to be, I do think he has accomplished things,” she says. “I’m afraid that if Romney gets elected, then we reward the Republicans, which then tells the Democrats that that behavior works… It’s the last four years all over again, only with the part of the Republicans being played by the Democrats, and the part of the president being played by Romney.”
Rick Robol agrees that the politicking is the root of the problem. “We need to get rid of these things that are creating professional politicians who run the country for the purpose of getting themselves reelected,” he says. “We need to get rid of this notion that money is the same thing as free speech, and that there should be unlimited spending for political advertising.” In spite of these fundamental issues Robol has with the political system, he’s leaning toward Obama for Tuesday.
Horacio Soberon-Ferrer is very much in Romney’s camp. While he thinks there is a kernel of truth in Julia Pfaff’s analysis, that a vote for Romney might reward the bad behavior of Republicans in Congress, he thinks Romney would do a better job of reaching across the aisle.
But Barbara Dymond is thinking Obama, in part because of Mitt Romney’s positions on women’s rights. “I get this definite impression that if he had things his way, women would be at home cooking and cleaning and having dinner on the table for their husbands when they get home.”