"Swing Voters" Don't Exist...

...if they ever did in the first place. The belief that there's this large group of people who are such passionate believers in the right to vote yet haven't (for whatever reason) managed to wrap their brains around the issues they care about and/or which of the two major parties represent them is absurd.

Yet in this story about how Obama is suddenly "Mr. Negative Ad Guy," the Washington Post continues to shovel this crappy theory on the American People:

Seventy-seven percent of the Illinois Democrat's commercials were negative during the week after the Republican National Convention, compared with 56 percent of the spots run by McCain. Ken Goldstein, who directed the study by the Wisconsin Advertising Project, based at the University of Wisconsin, says the pattern was a reversal from earlier months, in which McCain's advertising was consistently more negative than Obama's.

"It suggests that the Sarah Palin pick and the newfound aggressiveness by McCain got into Obama's head a little bit," Goldstein said. "He was under great pressure to show some spine, be aggressive, fire back."

The study found Obama limiting his television buys to 17 states and McCain airing spots in 15. For all the talk of an expanded electoral map, both campaigns are concentrating resources in traditional battlegrounds, with slightly more than half the total spent on advertising going to Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

"Shockingly, this race is going to come down to swing voters in the same swing states that decided the last two elections," Goldstein said.

Ugh. Let me say this another way: if every person who votes is informed (either on the candidate or the issues) there wouldn't be a need to talk about "swing voters." I hear "swing voters" and I think "uninformed voters."

It's pretty simple, people: either you believe Barack Obama is the right choice for president, or you believe John McCain is the right choice. You either believe that a Republican President can make things better, or a Democratic one can. You believe the last eight years was a Big Slice of Heaven, or you think it was Hell on Earth.

There's no room to "swing" anymore. The other people running for president either don't have the resources, platform or history of working with a Government full of Democrats and Republicans to be taken seriously (sorry; it's the truth). And because we really only have a choice between a Republican and a Democrat, voters can't "swing." Until we have third in fourth parties that are not only making serious runs for the White House, but for Congress and local government, voters won't "swing."

So it's either the Democrat, the Republican, somebody who won't get enough votes to win, or stay home. Four choices. Now "swing" that.

(As far as people being "undecided;" well: what exactly are they waiting to hear? Are they not going to these guys websites? Calling the local campaign HQ? Asking anyone in touch questions? At this point, there may be a good reason they're "undecided.")