"Who am I?" and "Why this blog?"

Who am I?

I am an undecided swing voter. From Florida. And I identify myself as "middle-class." (So supposedly, both Obama and Romney will are good for me if either wins the election :)

Why this blog?

I read an article that said 45% had already decided they'd re-elect Obama. Another 45% had decided to vote for Romney. So that meant that 10% of America is going to decide this election (and if doomsdayers are to be believed - the fate of the world.)

Of that 10%, maybe 20% live in a swing state, so (evidently) I'm in the 2% that REALLY matter. And of that 2% how many blog? (Most political bloggers are decidedly biased Democrat or Republican - it's their strong passions that make them want to blog. How many "strongly passionate" undecideds are there?)

So political types should probably care what someone like me thinks about this election - evidently they're spending millions on polls, and more millions on advertising.... So they could look at fake numbers, or they could just read my blog for an in-depth "sampling" of their target audience.

I do doubt if any "senior campaign startegists" will ever read my blog though. Mostly I'm doing this to work out my own thoughts. (And to archive it, so I can look back when I'm 65 and say, "I actually believed that when I was younger?")

I can't really be an undecided swing voter, right?

Technically, you could say my (historical) preferences lean towards Republican/small government. At the start of 2012, I was leaning more towards Romney, although I am currently leaning towards re-electing Obama. But we'll see what happens in the debates. (Seriously, why/how has 90% of the country already decided who to vote for, when the debates haven't happened yet?)

I grew up with Reagan, and I suppose he shaped my values. (Reinforced when Clinton said, "The era of big government is over.") I voted for Clinton over Dole, because why change when things are going well? I voted for Bush over Gore, because of my (traditional) Republican leanings, and it seemed like a governor is better qualified that a vice-president. (Seriously, what did the VP do for 8 years?)

I voted AGAINST Bush in 2004, not because I liked Kerry, but because I HATED Bush. (Seriously, we can't afford it, but let's give free drugs to seniors just to keep the incumbent in power? And I hated "Operation Enudring Freedom" before "hating it" became mainstream.)

In 2008, I voted for Obama, because while I admired McCain's courage and fighting spirit, I thought Obama's intellectual capacity was more...presidential.

I didn't follow the start of the 2012 Republican primaries that closely. (It started with like 20 candidates.) As the field narrowed, I thought Ron Paul had some crazy ideas (some were "good crazy", but enough were "crazy crazy" ideas.) I hated Newt Gingrich for attacking Clinton's personal failings for political gain. Ultimately, I preferred Romney's "economy" message over Santorum's "Christian Values" message.

In the 2012 general election, I was initially leaning towards Romney. I don't believe Obama is a secret Muslim socialist who failed on the economy. Mostly, I think he did his job adequately (we didn't plunge into a second Great Depression) - but I think Obama didn't really have a plan to do things differently for the next 4 years.

I'm kind of leaning back towards Obama, because Romney doesn't seem to have a concrete plan either. Romney said something like "If you don't think Obama did a good job, that means you should vote for me." Umm, no, Mr. Romney, I will vote for you when you convince me that you'll do a better job than Obama. I'm not going to vote Obama out and put someone who will do (maybe) a worse job in his place.

Obama isn't great, but Romney hasn't convinced me that you'll do better. Maybe that'll change during the debates, but until then, I'm leaning towards Obama.