Undecided voters?

Tuesday's debate may have starred Barack Obama and John McCain, but it wasn't really about them. Rather, it was about an odd and extremely powerful creature in American electoral politics: the Undecided Voter. It was the Undecided Voter whom Gallup asked to submit the questions. It was the Undecided Voter who filled the audience. It was the Undecided Voter who turned the dials controlling CBS' squiggly reaction lines and recorded his (or her) responses for CBS' postelection survey.

By Ezra Klein

October 12, 2008