I was just in PA for a few days. I kinda got the impression that most people...

[Curtland1015]

...are sick of hearing about the election. Everywhere my wife and I went, the talk about politics wasn't "I want Obama to win", or "I want McCain to win". The vast majority of the comments we heard were basically "I am so sick of hearing about this election."

I swear we must of heard people say that about three dozen times over the four days we were there. They are getting deluged with political ads, signs are all over the place... so I guess my question is, does this ever go so far that it ends up hurting turn out?

...and I don't mean in a concern troll "they're gonna steal the election!11!1!" way, because I think it would hurt both guys uniformly if at all. But do you think people out there (people who care a LOT less about politics than you or I) sometimes hear so much of this stuff that they just stop caring?

[autorank]

1. What will they say when they're unemployed and broke

That's very disturbing. They better hear about and study the election or they'll get screwed
again.

[Curtland1015]

2. Of course, we didn't have long discussions with most of these people.

For all I know, they will probably still go out and vote. It's just that the talk was more about being sick of hearing about it all.

[justiceischeap]

As I recall in 2000, we were deluged as well but I still had to stand in line

for 4 hours to vote. At this point, most voters have made up their minds about whom their voting for, so all the ads are a bit redundant. I remember keeping my TV off for a good portion of October.

[Youphemism]

3. Yes... An astute observation. That's surely why Obama pulled back on ads there...

Just like any commercial that airs over and over -- even more so, I'd bet -- political ads get wearing over time and start to have a negative impact. Obama's folks are really on top of things and this issue is no different. Even though McCain is attacking there, Camp Obama has pulled back on ads. I'm sure the same is not true of the ground campaign.

[scheming daemons]

4. In 2006, we kept hearing about how Santorum was "closing in"....

About a week from the election, they said that his "internals" had it a dead-heat.


Final result:

Casey 59
Santorum 41


It was a blowout.


2008 is not so different from 2006.

[rsdsharp]

5. LOL. While I'm excited, I can more than sympathize with PA.

I'm in Iowa. We've been dealing with this since early to mid 2006. An we'll probably start even earlier for 2012. By last Fall, before the caucuses, we were innundated with ads from virtually everybody on both sides. I actually told my wife that I longed to see an ad for seed corn or herbicides.

Since we've been a battleground state the last few cycles, during the genereal election, we get as many or more ads than many other states, even those with far more electoral votes. Yeah, I'm ready for it to be over, especially because in the next 10 days or so we're likely to see a tsunami of sleeze from McCain-Palin even worse than what they've been doing.

[Marie26]

6. Swing states have been deluged for months

No wonder they're sick of it. I'm sick of it & I'm a total political junkie. But if you turn on CNN, all they show is Obama/McCain, 24 hours a day. Really, is there nothing else going on in the world?

[old mark]

7. I live in PA. I voted for Obama in the primary, will vote for him again

in the real election, have not watched any of the debates except to laugh at Palin for a few minutes. I don't watch political programing, turn off all programing when it becomes political.
I am a Democrat - I don't need to be "educated" about Obama, or the republicans, etc. I would not ever consider voting Republican in any case, but the tworepublican candidates this election are insulting to my idea of America, and I just don't need to be pissed off any more.
I have ignored ALL political content on TV since before the Primanies, don't subscribe to newspapaer because I hate to read about politics.

I just come here to make stupid jokes and curse the republicans.

Politicians are a pain in the ass - I can't wait till this bullshit is over and the Democrats have finally won.

mark

[kenziemom06]

8. I live in PA and...

I'm finding that there is a certain level of election
fatigue...when I bring it up at lunch at work people kind of
roll their eyes and say "Still talking about Obama?"
BUT they are overwhelmingly voting blue and would never let
their fatigue keep them from voting!