McFreedom

CNN is asking, in its unscientifiic (read: useless) poll, Are you happy with the choice of candidates for president? I'm not aware of a scientific poll that asks this question, but the answer could be very interesting. My hypothesis is that most people who aren't happy with the choices available are going to end up being Bush supporters.

The people who are "happy" with the candidates we have fall into one of two, basic camps: People who like Bush, and are happy with him, and people who dislike Bush but are happy with his opponent (leaving aside the small percentage of people who plan to vote for some, non-mainstream candidate). But the people who are unhappy, I think, are largely saying, "I don't like Bush. But I don't like Kerry, either." Most of the people I know who are planning on voting Bush (including your humble author) have a litany of complaints against him, but don't like Kerry, either ("not happy with" either candidate). Most of the people I know who are planning on voting for Kerry seem pretty happy with him.

So, in my unscientific survey of people I know, commenting on CNN's unscientific survey of web users, I think "I'm not happy with either candidate" translates into more votes for Bush (or more staying at home in apathy). I'd love to see a real poll that asks these questions - this might be an interesting way to drill into people who claim to be "undecided" but really in their hearts know they're going to end up voting for the President.